Chapter 1Publisher's Preface

Ansariyan Publications, publishers of quality Islamic literat-ure in various languages, is pleased to present this book to youwhich is one of the translated works of our brother, Yasin T.alJibouri. We have already published a number of books writ-ten or translated by al-Jibouri and are pleased to add this one,too, to the list. Hie first book written by al-Jibouri which Ansar-iyan published in 1421 A.11./2000 A.D. was Fast of the Monthof Ramadan; Philosophy and Ahkam followed by Allah: TheConcept of God in Hain and Kerhala and Beyond. This book isone of his numerous translations.

Our readers often ask us to introduce the authors or translat-ors to them; therefore, instead of repeating ourselves, wewould like to refer them to our Publisher's Preface in Uswat al-Arifeen if they wish to read full details about the translator.Here, we would like to give you just a brief idea about him:

Al-Jibouri was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1946 and lived most ofhis life in holy al-Kadhimiyya city. He obtained his B.A. in Eng-lish on June 30, 1969 from the College of Arts, BaghdadUniversity, and his M.A, in English from (then) AtlantaUniversity (now Clark-Atlanta University), Atlanta, Georgia, onDecember 20, 1978, and in March of 1988 a Certificate withHonors in Microprocessors and Microcomputers from N.R.I, ofWashington, D.C, in addition to three certificates in electronicsand programming, including advanced programming, writingmore than 100 programs.

He taught English as a second language at high schools in

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Iraq, a vocational institute in Saudi Arabia, and a University inthe U.S. He edited and revised three English translations orthe Holy Quran: I) by S.V, Mir Ahmed Ali, .2) by A. Yusuf Ali,and 3) by M.H. Shakir, He also edited several newsletters andmagazines, including Middle East Business Magazine, a highquality business magazine headquartered in Arlington, Virgin-ia, U.S.A., of which he became Senior Editor. Among the bookshe edited are: Socio-Economic Justice with Particular Refer-ence to Nahjul-Balagha, A Biography of Leader., of Islam andYour kalima and the Savior. He is the first person ever to trans-late works of the martyred economist Imam AyatullahMuhammad Baqir al-Sadr such as: Contemporary Man and theSocial Problem, A General Outlook at Rituals, The GeneralBases of Banking in the Muslim Society, and What Do YouKnow About Islamic Economics? The second title only is avail-able with the U.S, Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.,U.S.A. He also translated and/or published numerous titles;among them are: A Biography of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr,The Form of Islamic Government and Wilayat al-Faqeeh, Aboutthe World Political Situation From a Muslim's Viewpoint, OurFaith and A Biography of Imam al-Rida by the late ShaikhMuhammad Jawad Fadlallah, in addition to a large number ofpolitical tracts, pamphlets, translations, and newsletters.

His translated works include the following:

1) The first four volumes of the series titled Al-Islam Risala-tuna.2) Al-Murajaat: A ,Shi'i-Sunni Dialogue, the first authentic Eng-lish translation of Al-Murajaat by Imam Sayyid SharafuddeenSadrud-Deen al-Musawi,3) Al-Shi'a hum Ahl al-Sunnah by Dr. Muhammad al-Tijani al-Samawi.4) AI-:Maqta! (the martyrdom epic of Imam I lusaim by Abd al-Razzaq al-.Moqarram's book.

He also translated the following titles originally authored in Ar-abic by Rachad el-Moussaoui: Best Month, Best Night; TheBook of Istikhara; Weapon of the Prophets:Miracles of the HolyOur'an: and The Great Names of Allah (Asma' Allah al-Husna).

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These titles do not carry the Translator's name, however.

He translated 2 books by the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammedal-Shirazi: 1) Canon: A Glimpse al the Islamic Law and 2) ThePathway to an Islamic Revival.

He wrote several articles for Islamic Monitor, bulletin of theIslamic Research & Information Center.

He has written eight books:

1) Volume One of his autobiography titled Memoirs of a Shi'aMissionary in America: Two Decades of Da 'wah,2) Fast of the Month of Ramadan: Philosophy and Ahkam,3) The Ninety-Nine Attributes of Allah,4) Mary and Jesus in Islam,5) Allah: The Concept of God in Islam,6) Muhammed: The Prophet and Messenger of Allah,7) Ghadir Khumm: Where Islam was Perfected, and8) Kerbala and Beyond

He was quite active in Islamic Da'wa work in the United States.He founded the Islamic Society of Georgia, Inc. (Atlanta, Geor-gia) in 1973, the Islamic Revival Movement in 1980, the Inter-national Islamic Society of Virginia, Inc. in 1982, and the IraqNews Monitor in 1992, Edited Islamic Affairs newsletter fromJanuary 1974 — June 1989.

On September- 3, 2003, he returned to his homeland and re-sumed living in al-Kadhimiyya where he has so far translatedfive books one of which is this title in addition to kashif Reebuan Ahkam al-Gheeba by Sheikh Taqi ad-Din Ibraim son of Alia1-'Aamili. Al-Siraj: The Lantern (towards the Path of Allah) bySheikh Hussain bin Ali bin Sadiq al-Bahrani and The Truthabout the ,Shi'ah Ithna-Asheri Faith by As'ad Wahid alQasim.All these books are available with Ansariyan.

We solicit your comments about these and other books whichwe publish, and surely your opinion counts with us.

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Ansariyan Publications

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Chapter 2Introduction

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the most Mercifitl

Praise to Allah Who knows the inner thoughts, Who tests theconscience, Who encompasses everything; ilk is the power anddominance over everything; blessings and salutations to theone who brought the glad tidings, the warner, the shininglight, Muhammad, the master of messengers, and upon his pro-geny, the good ones, the pure.

The human heart, whereby man is granted distinction overall creation, is like a mirror: It is affected by what it receives ofcontemptible effects of ugly norms of conduct and wrongdo-ings. If the effects arc praiseworthy, the heart's mirror be-comes clearer, shinier, more illuminating, so much so that in itthe reality of the truth becomes glittering, the truth about whatis hidden from the beings becomes revealed, and the truth ofthe matter sought in the creed becomes obvious. It is to suchan intellect that the Master of the Faithful, peace be with him,refers when he says the following: "0 servants of Allah! Theone who is the most loved by Allah from among His servants isone who is assisted by Allah against his own self (nab), so he issomber, outfitted with fear, the light of guidance shining in hisheart," till he says, "So he, with regard to conviction (iman), islike sun rays." This is the heart that, upon the mention of Allah,the most Exalted, the most Great, becomes fearful, and whenHis verses are recited, they increase its conviction and in it re-membrance settles, Allah Almighty has said, … Indeed, in theremembrance of Allah do hearts find rest" (Qur'an, 13:28).

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If the effects are contemptible, they are like a dark smokethat rises to the heart's mirror, and it keeps piling up time andover again till the entire page of the heart is blackened. So it istotally dark. It becomes stamped with predomination, veiledFrom Allah Almighty. The most Praised One has said, "But thestain of the (ill) that they do is on their hearts! Truly they willhe veiled from (the light of) their Lord that Day" (Qur'an,83:14-15). The Almighty has also said, "Is it not a guiding (les-son) to those who inherit the earth alter its (previous) resid-ents, that, if We so willed. We could punish them (too) for theirsins, and seal up their hearts so that they could not hear'?"(Qur'an, 7:100), Thus, lle makes a connection between hearingand stamping on the hearts, stamping with the sins.

Al-Kulaini, may Allah be pleased with him, cites on p. 273,Vol. 2, No. 20, of his work al-Kafi Zurarah citing Abu Ja'farpeace be with him, saying, "Every servant of Allah has a whitespot in his heart. When he commits a sin, blackness will enterinto the white spot. If he repents, the blackness disappears,but if he keeps committing sins, the blackness keeps spreadingtill it covers the entire whiteness. Once it covers the whiteness,this individual will never go hack to righteousness." It is themeaning of this verse: "But the [black] stain of the (ill) thatthey do is on their hearts" (Qur'an, 83:14), and perhaps themeaning of this narrative may bring to 'memory this verse:"Thus does Allah seal up the heart of every arrogant and ob-stinate transgressor" (Qur'an, 40:35). So, think about it andponder.

He, peace be with him, is also quoted as saying said, "Heartsare of three types: a heart that is turned upside down, knowingno good: It is the heart of an apostate (kafir), a heart that has ablack spot, goodness and evil in it wrestle with each other:whichever wins overtakes him, and an open heart; in it there isa lamp that shines; its light never goes out till the Day of Judg-ment: It is the heart of a believer." I is says "till the Day ofJudgment" because this heart does not disintegrate when thebody disintegrates; obedience to Allah polishes the heart,whHe disobeying Him blackens it."

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So, if the deeds are righteous and the rituals accepted, theyhave to hear an impact on the clarity of the heart, its 1700rand shine, The soundness of deeds, especially the rituals, hasto meet the condition of being complete in their Parts andmeeting their conditions as well as undertaken exclusively forthe sake of seeking nearness to Allah Almighty. If the deedlacks these conditions, when it lacks some of its parts or condi-tions, or if it is insincere, it may not instill noor into the heart,nor does it bear any impact on the heart's clarity and shine.When we see in ourselves and in our hearts that performingthe rituals is not having any effect on our hearts, when wesense no noor for them within nor any effect without, although.most or all of our worship meets the first condition, being in-clusive of the parts and outwardly conditions, i.e. outwardlysound… , vet they lack the noor… , it is so on account of theirlacking sincerity for Allah Almighty; otherwise, why do not weput an end to committing what is abominable and detested?Why do the springs of wisdom not flow from our hearts al-though the sacred tradition determines that they must flow inforty days according to his statement, peace be with him, "Onewho is sincere to Allah for forty mornings, the springs of wis-dom flow from his heart to his tongue"'? And why is Satan play-ing games with us, interfering in all our affairs, although hehad made a pledge to Allah Almighty not to tempt the sincereones: "Then, by Your might, I will put them all in the wrong, ex-cept Your servants among them, the sincere and purified ones"(Qur'an, 38:82-83)?

This is only the outcome of our deeds being conjoined withinsincerity. And I do not mean, when 1 mention sincerity beingabsent from our deeds, the high levels of sincerity that areamong the characteristics of the friends of Allah, those who arcnear to Him, for we have no share of such sincerity… , but Imean the lowest of its levels, that is, it contains no pretensionwhich nullifies the deeds. If we sift through our deeds andrituals, we will find out that Satan has penetrated most of themand spoiled our deeds, as we will, God willing, explain. Anydeed undertaken in order to make a show is null and void ac-cording to the Shari'a and has no bearing, no impact, no effect.We have to correct our deeds from this side and rid them of

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pretension for it is shirk in Allah Almighty in adoration accord-ing to his statement, peace be With him, "Every form of preten-sion is shirk (polytheism)."

Since shirk has many branches, and since Satan and the nafsin this regard have hidden traps which nobody except a dis-cerning critic can detect, this summary is written to seek bene-fit from statements by scholars of the hereafter and professorsof ethics, especially the greatest professor, Imam al-Khomeini,may Allah preserve his shade, pleading to the Master, the mostGreat, to make it exclusively for the sake of pleasing Him andnot to let Satan has any share in it so it may be a means for sal-vation and a tool for forgiveness; surely Allah grants success:surely He provides help.

Pretension

In the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

Praise to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, greetings untoMuhammad and his Progeny and the sincere servants of Allah.

PRETENSION ACCORDING TO THE QUR'AN:

1. So, woe unto the worshippers, who are neglectful of theirprayers, those who (want only) to be seen (by men), but theyrefuse (to supply even) neighborly needs. (Qur'an, 107:4-7)

2. And they have been commanded no more than this: Toworship Allah, offering Him sincere devotion, being true (infaith). (Qur'an, 98:5)

3. Is it not to Allah that sincere devotion is due'? (Qur'an,39:3)

4. Whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him do righteousdeeds, and in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as (His)partner. (Qur'an, 18:110)

PRETENSION IN TRADITIONS:

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1. In his book according to isnad to Yazid ibn Khalifah, theauthor cites the narrator saying that Abu Abdullah, peace bewith him, said to him, "Every form of pretension is shirk. Onewho works for the sake of pleasing people is to be rewarded bythem, and one who works for Allah will be rewarded by Allah."

2. In his book al-Saduq says that the Messenger of Allah (a.s)was once asked, "What will bring us salvation in the life tocome'?" [le (a.s) said, "Salvation then will be in not attemptingto deceive Allah so lie lets you he deceived, for anyone whotries to deceive .Allah will himself he deceived, Conviction willbe extracted out or him, and he actually deceives none but hisown self." He was asked, "How can anyone try to deceive Al-lah'?!" The Prophet (a.s) said, "I le acts upon what Allah has en-joined, then by the same action he tries to impress others. So,fear Allah and avoid pretension, for it is shirk against Allah. Apretender will be called upon the Day of .Judgment with fournames: 0 Kafir (apostate)! 0 Fajir (debauchee)! 0 Ghadir (de-ceiver)! 0 Khasir (loser)! Your deeds are void, your reward iscancelled, and there is nothing good for you this Day: so, seekyour rewards from those for whom you used to work!"

3. In Wassail al-Shi'ah by al-Hurr al-Amili quoting Qurb al-Isnad,, through isnad traced to the Commander of the Faithful(a.s) , the Messenger of Allah (a.s) has said, "One who makeshimself look good by doing what Allah loves then in secrecy de-fies Allah by doing what Allah hates will find Allah angry withhim in the Hereafter, holding him in contempt." This sacredtradition will later be explained, so wait. There are many suchtraditions, and what we have stated must suffice and serve thememory.

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Chapter 3Meaning Of "Pretension"

The word "riya" (pretension) is derived from "ru'ya" ( vision,eyesight), just as the word "sum'a" (reputation) is derived from"sam'" (hearing), in essence, the meaning of pretension is thatone seeks, through the medium of his good deeds, distinctionand prominence in the hearts of people, even if this can beachieved through good deeds. But the term, according to theShari'a, requires this intention to materialize in the, rituals andin the deeds intended for seeking nearness to Allah as a condi-tion for their acceptance according to the Shari'a. Thereupon,the meaning of pretension is what is supposed to be a deed forthe sake of nearness to Allah with the intention to seek a statusamong the people". The leading imam, al-Khomeini, may Allahprolong his shade, has made a statement in this regard. Its gistis that pretension, according to him, is not exclusively relevantto an act of worship but is broader than that. He says, "Be in-formed that pretension is showing people some good deeds, orcommendable attributes, or true beliefs in order to achieve astatus in their hearts and fame among them that he is kind,sound of belief, trustworthy and pious without truly seeking toplease the Almighty. This materializes in certain levels:

FIRST LEVEL :

It has two degrees: In the FIRST degree, one shows off thetrue beliefs and divine branches of knowledge so he will befamous for being pious and will have a status in people's heartssuch as he may say, "1 see none effective in existence save Al-lah," or he may say, "1 rely on none save Allah". Or he mayidentify himself as being associated with true belief's by either

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affiliation or reference. This type of pretension is the mostwidely circulated, For example_ when either reliance on Allahor accepting Ills decree is discussed at a gathering, the pre-tender will then sigh or move his head to beckon that he is onthe path of those who rely on or who accept the decree ofAllah.

In the SECOND degree, he clears himself of or puts it abovefalse beliefs, seeking distinction and prominence in the heartswhether explicitly or implicitly.

SECOND LEVEL :

It, too, has two degrees: In the FIRST degree, one demon-strates the commendable attributes and the virtuous facultiesseeking distinction and prominence. In the SECOND degree,he holds himself as being above contradictions, clearing him-self of contemptible attributes and foul faculties for this samepurpose.

THIRD LEVEL :

It is the pretension known to exist among the faqihs, may Al-lah be pleased with them. It, too, has these two degrees: ONEOF THEM is doing what is required by the Shari'a or legislatedadoration, or doing what is rationally commendable seekingshowing them off to people and winning their hearts in a widersense than doing so through what is meant by pretension whendoing the same, or in the way he does it, or in meeting its con-dition or a portion thereof according to what they have statedin the books of fiqh (jurisprudence). The second is leaving a_job for the same." This is what the imam, may Allah prolonghis shade, describes the classifying norms of pretension.

A scholar of the hereafter has mentioned another classifica-tion tor pretension after having defined pretension, saving it iswhat the servants of Allah fare with obedience to Him, dividingit into five types :

1. pretension about the faith with the use of the body

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2. pretension about the faith through the norms of clothing,outfitting form and attire

3. pretension in speech4. pretension in action5. pretension in companionship and in friendliness with the

public

This division, though not logical, is backed by examples foreach explaining the deceptions of the wily. They benefit thosewho wish to purify their souls and reform them so they may beguided against the ways of the soul's deceptions. We, there-fore, would like to mention some of them here with our ownediting :

The first type, that is, the pretension about the faith with theuse of bodily parts, means showing thinness, weakness and yel-lowish facial complexion so one is thus deceived about the ex-tent of exertion, the deep concern about the creed and theoverwhelming fear of the Hereafter. He wants to give the im-pression that he is eating very little, his face is yellow becauseof spending the night vigilant, greatly exerting himself andfeeling depressed out of concern for the religion. He alsomakes a pretense by leaving his hair untidy so he may give theimpression that his mouth is deeply involved in religious utter-ing [rather than in eating and drinking]; he has no time to tidyhis hair. These causes, no matter how they appear, give thepeople the impression about these matters, so the pretender'ssoul is at ease when he gives such an impression; so, his soulprompts him to demonstrate them so that it may be restful. Youmay see this pretender lowering his voice when he speaks sothat the listener may be duped into believing that lowering thevoice is due to abundance of adoration, or his lips are witheredbecause of continuous last. It is for this reason that Christ,peace he with him, said, "When one of you fasts, let him oil hishead, tidy his hair and use kohl (arras) for his eyes," The reas-on why he, peace be with him, said so was out of fear of Sataninsinuating pretension.

As regarding pretension coming from clothing and appear-ance, it is when one does not tidy his hair, lowers his head

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when he walks more than what is required by modesty and dig-nity, when he is quiet in movement, keeping the mark of pros-tration on the forehead and perhaps wearing an outfit that isnot clean so he may be counted among the sincere worshippersof Allah.

Clothing pretenders are various classes: Some of them seek astatus among the people of righteousness and piety by showingoff asceticism. One May wear a worn out garment so he may beregarded by them as an ascetic and lives in the society in thisattribute. The mark of his pretension is that if he is asked towear an average clean garment like that worn by the righteouspredecessors, it will be very hard for him to do so, and it willhe as if lie is being led to his slaughter because he is afraidpeople will say that lie is tired of being an ascetic and returnedto his old self, desiring the life of this world. Another classseeks acceptance among the people of righteousness and thepeople of the world such as businessmen and the elite. Thesepoor folks feel embarrassed and alarmed because if they wearluxurious clothes, the ascetics and the servants of Allah will re-ject them. And if they wear old worn out clothes, they will per-haps fall in the eyes of the people of this world and in the ayesof the rich. They want to combine between the acceptance ofthe people of faith and that the people of this world; therefore,they choose clothes the weaving and the fabric of which arcvaluable, hence the value of their clothes is similar to that of arich man's clothing, but its form and color give the impressionthat it is worn by the righteous. With this trick they seek ac-ceptance by both groups. The mark of pretension of this groupis that if they are asked to wear old clothes that are in goodshape, it will be very hard for them to do so out of their tearthe righteous people will tell them that they desired the life ofthis world. And if they are asked to wear what is coarse orworn out, it will be a harsh undertaking due to their fear of los-ing lace among the rich. Each of these classes sees its statusrepresented in a particular way of dressing; it is hard for himto move to something less or something more or to anythingelse, even if it is permissible or preferred by the Shari'a.

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As for pretension in speech, it is when a pretender keeps re-peating pieces of wisdom: He keeps reminding others in orderto win people's hearts. He memorizes words of wisdom, tradi-tions and biographies in order to use them in his debates toshow the richness of his knowledge and to point out to his ex-treme care about the conditions of the pious ancestors. Hechooses statements containing vocal letters, or at least verbalones, so he may move his tongue in a gathering of the people.If the statement contains both types of letters, it will be pre-ferred by him. During a public meeting, he busies himself withrepeating holy statements although if he sits alone for hours,his lips do not utter anything of the mention of Allah. His de-nunciation of what is detestable is intense before the public: heexpresses sorrow for people committing transgressions, and heis amazed at how they dare to disobey .Allah. Thus, people mayget the impression that he does not commit a transgression,nor does he have the courage to undertake it. The branches ofspeech pretension exhaust a great deal to mention.

As regarding pretension in action, such as a praying personshowing off how he prolongs his standing during the prayersreciting lengthy chapters, especially if he is an imam of agroup, so that people may recognize his distinction and that hehas memorized many chapters of the Holy Qur'an, and theyenvy him fur standing so long during his adoration. If he praysat home or outside it, where he is not seen by anyone, lie willbe satisfied with reciting the shortest chapters. His condition isthe same during solemnity and submission as well as lengthyprostration during the prayers. When he is seen by the public,he does so more than during his solitude especially if he is theimam of a group. He goes overboard in showing off his deepadoration, prolonging his prostration especially during the"sajdat al-shukr", thanksgiving prostration, after the prayerritual. He may remain prostrating till all those praying behindhim disperse. The same applies to the rest of his acts of adora-tion such as fast, charity and pilgrimage. Even when he Walksto take care of a need, he may hurry, but if one of the men ofreligion sees him, he immediately reverts to solemnity, tolowering his head for fear of being accused of haste and of be-ing less solemn. When the man of religion is out of sight, the

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pretender resumes his pace. A pretender may pray by himselfwithout full concentration, but if someone sees him, he goesback to his full concentration. When he is in a place of publicworship, he states that full attention must be allotted to theAlmighty. He wants people to hear him say so in order that hemay be counted among the true servants of AIM, the righteousones.

Among them is one who is immersed in pretension: When liecatches himself off-guard, he feels so shy that his gait, whenalone, is similar to that when he is seen by people, fearingpeople may get to notice the variation in his gait, so he forceshimself to walk properly, humbly, when alone so he may getused to it and it will be the same when he is alone and when inpublic, and he will not need to shift from one to the other whenseen by people. He thus thinks that he gets rid of pretension,being unmindful of the fact that his pretension has intensified,his scheme has doubled, and his pretension has crept into hissolitude as well. When he walks properly when alone, so he willdo likewise before people, he does not do that out of fear of Al-lah, nor feeling shy of Him.

Since the source of what is hidden about pretension can beexplained through another example, let us do so to the believ-ing brothers. A pretender may agree that his reason, the hid-den messenger or the angel in charge of good deeds accordingto the traditions, inspires him that prayers, for example, whichare performed in public are more profound and contain moreremembrance of Allah than in the prayer ritual performed athome distantly from the public eyes, and there is no doubt thatsuch a prayer is null due to pretension creeping into it, it isthen that Satan or the nafs may interfere in the subject and setup a hidden trap of which a praying person is rarely aware,which is: The nafs and Satan oblige the believer to pray insolitude, too, with full devotion and mentioning lengthy sup-plications so this will be regarded as the answer for reason orfor the angel that "My prayer in public is the same as I performit in solitude; so, what evidence do you have against me thatmy prayer is that of a pretender? Is not my prayer beforepeople the same as it is in my home? Actually, the prayer

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which I perform in solitude may be more profound and contain-ing more lengthy praises than it is outside the house and be-fore the public eyes." But the poor man is heedless of Satan,and the nafs has not left a sound prayer for him, not even insolitude or in the depth of the night. In other words, among thesigns of an action not being pretentious is that the action wit-nessed by people is similar to it in solitude, not the action insolitude being similar to that performed publicly: so, thinkabout it.

As for pretension in socializing, it is when someone makes ar-rangements so that scholars may visit him, and so that it willbe said that so-and-so is visited by so-and-so, or that he is re-spected by scholars. It will be said that the theologians seekthe blessings of God by visiting him. And if he can find a way sobusinessmen and the elite, too, visit him, let it be so in orderthat people may say that so-and-so is respected by all classesof scholars worshipers and the folks of the life of this world. Ifhe cannot attract them to visit him, he himself goes to visit thescholars and worshippers so it will be seen that he met manyscholars and worshippers from whom he benefited, so he bragsabout them. If the kind ones and the righteous are mentioned,he sighs and says, "Yes! How often I have met these kind ones,served them and was glad to be at their service!" so the listen-ers may get to know that serving the friends of Allah and therighteous does not go unrewarded by them, that they must def-initely have overwhelmed him with their goodness.

Among the pretenders is one who is satisfied with peoplethinking well of him. Many a worshipper isolates himself fromthe public and stays at home, feeling elated that people thinkwell of him. Although he no longer covets their wealth, he likesprominence and people thinking well of him: this has a sweettaste, as stated in its right place: it is the sort of power andperfection, though it quickly vanishes, and nobody is deceivedby it save the ignorant ones, but most people are! Had peoplecome to know the truth, they would have thought ill of him,their belief in him would have departed, and they thought thathe committed something ugly by thus sitting at home due tohis mind being confused. He was not satisfied with Allah's

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knowledge of his innocence and the purity of his heart; rather,he is deeply grieved. He may abandon isolation and adorationand comes out to the society. This poor man, though having nodesire for people's funds nor for their companionship, lookedforward to their good thoughts of him, their praise of him, sothe love for prominence set its roots in his heart, and his poorsoul felt satisfied with this much pleasure.

This is a collection of the things that entertain pretenders'minds. They all seek prominence and recognition in the heartsof people. Pretension has other sources the mention of which islengthy, and one who is loved by Allah may feel alert aboutthem, for if Allah loves a servant of His. He enables him to seehis own faults.

THE UGLIEST DEGREE OF PRETENSION

Imam al-Khomeini, may Allah prolong his shade, has said,"Be informed that the most serious degree of pretension andthe most detrimental, according to the principles of beliefs andtheological branches of knowledge, and the one the darknessto the heart of which is the most intense of all other types ofshowing off is this: if the pretender does not believe in what heshows off, he is still among the hypocrites whom Allah fore-warned of being kept in hell forever. His is perdition and etern-al loss, and his torment is the most severe. And if he believes inthat matter, but he does so seeking a status and distinction inthe hearts of people, although he is not a hypocrite, such a con-duct requires the light of conviction to abandon his heart so itwould be replaced by the darkness of disbelief. This is so be-cause this person, although he was initially committing hiddenshirk, demonstrated to people the divine branches of know-ledge and the true beliefs that have to be purely for seekingthe pleasure of Allah, their owner is the true I holy One, themost Glorious, but he let someone else be a partner in them:He let Satan have a hand in dealing with them.

Such an action comes from the heart1 seeking to pleasesomeone else other than Allah. lie (a.s) says in a sacred tradi-tion recorded in Al-Kafi, "Every type of pretension is kith,

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(apostasy)," But both this dark inner-self and bad trend drag,one to have a heart dedicated to anyone except Allah. Thedarkness of this vice becomes a means to gradually get one outof this life having no sound conviction (iman). The erroneousconviction becomes an image without a meaning, a bodywithout a soul, a peal with a pith, and it does not qualify it tohe accepted by the most Exalted One as referred to in a sacredtradition in Al-Kafi where Ali ibn Salim is quoted as having saidthat he heard Abu Abdullah (a.s) saying that the Almighty said,"I am the best partner: whoever brings another partner besidesMe in an action, I shall not accept it. I accept what is purelydone for My sake." It is well known that if the inner actions arenot purely for the sake of pleasing Allah, the Almighty does notaccept them; He does not look at them: rather. He refers themto the other partner, the one/ones for whom the action wasdone in order to show off to him/them. Thus, the inner actionswill be dedicated to that person, and they get the pretenderout of the limit of shirk into mere apostasy (kufr). Actually, itcan be said that this person, too, is among the group of hypo-crites. Just as shirk was hidden, so was his hypocrisy. The poorpretender fooled himself into thinking that he is a believer, buthe started as a mushrik and ended up as a hypocrite, and hehas to taste the torment tasted by the hypocrites, Woe untoone who is dragged into hypocrisy!

1We will explain, by the Wilf of Aflah, how conviction is anact of the heart [of the innermost].

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Chapter 4Explaning How Conviction Is Not Knowledge

Then Imam al-Khomeini, may Allah prolong his shade, ex-plained that conviction is not synonymous with knowledge. Hesaid:

Be informed that conviction is not the same as knowfedgeabout Allah, knowledge about His Unity, about the rest of Hisfixed attributes of perfection and great negative ones, know-ledge about the angefs, the books, the messengers and theLast Day, for perhaps one may be knowledgeable about aifthese matters without being a befiever. Satan, too, knowsabout these levels of knowledge as much as I know, and asmuch as you know, yet he is He also believes in the principleand knows that Alfah is the Creator because he says, "You cre-ated me of fire and created him of dust." And he knows aboutthe Hereafter, too, because he says, "Grant me a respite till theDay that they are brought back to fife." Yet, despite all thesequalities, he is kafir according to the clear Qur'anic verse thatsays, "… and he was among the unbefievers." The secret in thisis that conviction is an act of the heart.

If it is not brought into being, there is no presence for convic-tion. If anyone gets to know something according to the dic-tates of the rational evidence, or according to the judgment ne-cessitated by the creed, the heart has to surrender to suchknowledge, so the action conies from the heart as a manifesta-tion of such surrendering and submission, a sort of acceptance,so he may be a befiever. One's perfection is feeling comfort-able (with such surrendering) as referred to by this sacredverse: "'Then do You not befieve?' He said, 'Yes, I do! But so

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that my own understanding may be satisfied" (Qur'an, 2:260).When the light of conviction in the heart is strong, it is fol-lowed by feeling comfortable with it. All of this is differentfrom knowledge. Our minds can reafize something throughevidence, but our hearts did not surrender to it. Thus, knowledge becomes useless. For example if you realize through yourmind that a dead person cannot harm anyone, even if all thedead in the world get together, they coflectively have neithersense nor motion in as much as a mosquito, and that alf thephysical and spiritual forces have already departed. But sincethis meaning does not transcend the limit ()I knowledge, andsince it is not acceptable by the heart, and the heart did notsurrender to reason, you cannot spend one night with a deadperson in a dark night, and you will he afraid of his corpse. Butif the heart surrenders to reason and accepts such a judgementfrom reason, you wiff have no problem sleeping in the companyof a dead person. Also, if you do that, and you repeat spendingthe night with a dead person, the heart will then surrender toreason and wilf not be afraid of the dead. It will then be knownthat surrendering is the line of the heart, and it is differentfrom knowing, which is the fine of reason. It is then that mancan prove, through rational evidence, the presence of theMaker, the Exalted One, that lie is One and Only, that there isan afterlife, in addition to other true beliefs.

But conviction is not a description of these beliefs, nor is onewho believes in them is counted among the believers; rather,he is in the company of the unbelievers, the hypocrites or thepolytheists. The point is that this day, a covering has beenpfaced on the eye of his heart, and he does not have the angel-ic vision and the kingfy eye, so he does not reafize this mean-ing. But if the innermost is revealed, the truly divine powercomes up, nature is rendered into ruin, and the truth standstall, it is then that you feef you were not a believer in Affah.The said judgment for reason was not related to conviction 1.So, Dear One, unless you write down the

It must afso be known that committing, a group of acts of dis-obedience to Allah is not in sync with befief- in the Hereafterand in the Judgment Day; rather, doing them is not in harmony

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with the befief that one is in the company of the Truth, themost Exafted One, as referred to often in the cherished sup-pfications. One of the latter exists in the supplication of AbuHamzah al-Thumali: "If anyone today fooks at my sins otherthan You, I would not have done it. Had I feared the speedypenalty, I would have avoided it." The solution for this confu-sion is sought in the statement of the imam, may his shade beprolonged, in this regard.

blessed statement saying "There is no god except Allah" withthe pen of reason on the tabfet of the pure heart, you are not atrufy] believer in the Unity of Aflah Almighty.

If this good divine word enters one's heart, the heart's sub-mission will be directly to Affah Afmighty. The one who hassuch a heart does not then see any other human being as bear-ing any impact on the domain of the Truthful One, nor does heexpect any favor or distinction from anyone else. He will notthen seek a station and fame among people. The heart will notbe pretentious or deceptive. When you see pretension in theheart, he informed that your heart has not submitted to reason,nor has the light of conviction shone in it. You will see someoneefse other than Allah Afmighty as the influentiaf god; you wiflthen be in the company of the pofytheists, or hypocrites, orapostates.

Having explained the levels and basic origin of pretension,the Imam, may his shade endure, states a terse admonishmentin which he brings to memory the awful outcome of pretension.In it, there is a reminding for one who has a heart, or who doeslisten and stands as a witness. The master of divine sciences,Imam Khomeini, may his shade be prolonged, says thefollowing :

O pretender who has submitted the true beliefs and divinebranches of knowledge to the enemy of Allah, namely Satan,thus giving the matters that are exclusively related to Allah,Praise to Him, to someone else. You have taken out the celesti-al lights that used to shine in the soul and the heart and werethe capital of salvation, eternal happiness, the fountainhead of

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the divine communion, the seeds for the company of the LovedOne in the desolate darkness. You have permitted yourself tosuffer eternal perdition, the capital of the distance from theholy place of the Loved One. You have shunned the meetingwith the Almighty, the Truth… . So, be prepared for darknessbeyond which there is no light at all, for hardship beyondwhich there is no ease, for ailments that have no cure, fordeath that has no life and for a fire that springs out of thedepth of the heart and the domain of the soul, burning the do-main of the body in a way which neither my heart nor yourscan ever imagine, as Allah Almighty has already informed us inHis Revealed Book and which He described in this sacredverse: "(It is) the Fire of (the Wrath of) Allah kindled (to ablaze) which mounts (right) to the hearts" (Qur'an, 104:7-8).The Fire of Allah overwhelms the hearts and burns them. Nofire can burn a heart other than Allah's Fire. So, if someone'sUnity instinct, which is instilled by Allah, departs fromsomeone and is replaced by polytheism and apostasy, he willhave none to intercede on his behalf with the Almighty, and hewill be lodged into torment forever.

And what a torment it is! It is a torment that originates fromthe Almighty's subduing and divine wrath. 0 dear one! Do notexpose yourself to the wrath of the Almighty on account of afalse whim and a limited popularity among His weak servants.Such whim has neither any impact nor fruit save regrets andsighs. When your ties are cut off from this world, which is likea shop and a place for gain, and when your deeds come to anend, regrets and sighs will not avail you, and you will not beable to return and retract.

DEGREES OF PRETENSION'S OBJECTIVES

Some scholars of the hereafter have said that pretension,with regard to one's goals behind pretending, for surely thepretender has goals, is of three degrees :

THE FIRST DEGREE : It is the most intense and the mostserious: One's goal is to commit a transgression against thewill of Allah and to reach what is prohibitive, such as he makes

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a show of his acts of adoration, or feigns piety and godlinessthrough many supererogatory acts of adoration. He avoids any-thing that may bring about people's doubt in his regard. Hisgoal is so that people may recognize his trustworthiness, hencepositions in the judicial system, or religious trusts, or wills, orwhatever belongs to orphans. He will then take them and keepto himself whatever he can. Or he may be trusted with items,so he takes them and denies having done so, thus reaching hiscorrupt goals in committing transgressions. One may appear inthe attire of the righteous, articulating pieces of wisdom, ad-monishment, and reminding.

Yet his goal is to look good in the eyes of a beautiful woman.Some people may attend meetings of knowledge and remem-brance of the Almighty, or even of the Qur'an, pretending theywish to listen to knowledge and to the Qur'an when their goalis to look at women, and these pretenders are hated the mostby Allah Almighty because they made obedience to their Lord aladder to reaching their transgression, using it as a tool, ashop, a merchandise in their sinning. Close to these, thoughless in degree, is one who commits a crime of which he is ac-cused, yet he insists on it and wants to keep the charge awayfrom himself, so he feigns piety in order to deny the charge,such as one who denied a trust with him of which peoplecharged him, so he offers charity with the money in order thatit will be said he gives away from his money to the poor, sohow can it be possible that he seizes the funds belonging toothers? The likes of such folks are many among the Muslims.Individuals may gather funds that belong to the Muslims by themillions through usury or other illegitimate transactions. Onemay see that instead of returning people's money to them, heoffers charity with some of his money, or builds a mosque or ahospital, so that people may see that he is one who buildsmosques or hospitals; therefore, how can it be possible that hestretches his hands to people's money and possessions? Or onemay be charged with having committed a sin with a woman,and Allah, the most Exalted One, removed the covering fromhim and exposed him among the people. Instead of resorting toa covering from Allah, Praise to Him, regretting and pleadingto Allah, Who sways the hearts, to change people's attitude

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about him, he seeks a means through pretension, trying to cov-er his sin with pretension.

THE SECOND DEGREE: It is when his goal is to obtain a per-missible worldly gain such as wealth or marriage to a beautifulor distinguished woman, etc., so he feigns grief and keeps him-self busy with admonishing and reminding others so that fundsmay be spent on him. He will then sell more of his merchandiseif he is a merchant, a businessman, or among money makingfolks. Or if he wishes to marry a distinguished woman, such asthe daughter of a righteous scholar, he pretends to her fatherto be a man of knowledge and adoration so that he may marryhim to his daughter. This sort of pretension is prohibitive be-cause it seeks through the means of obedience to Allah thewares of this lowly life, but it is of a lesser degree than thefirst. What is sought through this pretension is by itself per-missible but it is contemptible, and its reality is shirk; the abso-lute authority is the privilege of the True One, the Almighty,when it comes to dealing with His servants.

THIRD DEGREE: The pretender does not seek fortune,wealth, or marriage, but he shows off his adoration for fearpeople may look at him as if he lacks something; therefore, heis not considered to be among the elite and the ascetics, andhe is regarded to be among the commoners, such as one whowalks to the congregational prayer services, to mosques, in ahurry, and when people see him, he adjusts his walk and aban-dons haste although it, at that time, was legitimate. But heabandons it so he may not be labeled as one of those who lovedistraction or negligence and not one of the men of eminence.Also, if he is the first to burst laughing or demonstrates merri-ment, so he is afraid he will be looked down upon with eyes ofcontempt, he follows it by seeking Allah's forgiveness and pre-tends to be sad on its account and says, "How unmindful a hu-man being is! But Allah knows that if such an individual is leftto himself, he would not consider doing so as being too much;rather, he fears he will he looked clown upon with contemptand not with respect.

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He is like one who sees a group of worshippers offering su-pererogatory prayers, or making tahajjud, or fasting eachThursday and Monday, as is transmitted about the imam of thenation who ordered the youths (of Hizbollah) to fast both thesedays, so the man goes along with them for fear he will be de-scribed as lazy and thus is not attributed to the party of Allah.If he is left alone, he does no such things. And he is like onewho endures the thirst on the Day of Arafa, or in clays duringwhich fast is highly recommended, so he does not drink waterfor fear people may get to know that he is not fasting.

So, if they think that he is, he abstains from eating as well,Or he may be invited to partake of food, so he abstains in orderthat he will be perceived as observing the fast. He may openlystate that he is fasting or says he has an excuse. Such a pre-tender combines two contemptible acts: He is seen by othersas fasting, then he is seen as a sincere one and not as a pre-tender. He is cautious lest he should mention his act of adora-tion to people for fear he will be seen as a pretender. He,hence, wants to give the impression that he is continuing hisact of adoration. If he is obligated to drink, he rushes to remindhimself that he has an excuse, either explicitly or implicitly,such as seeking an excuse because of an ailment that causeshim to have an acute need to drink water and stops him fromfasting. Or he may say, "Today, I visited so-and-so who pres-sured me to eat, so I ate." He may not then say that in connec-tion with his drinking water so that he will not be regarded asseeking an excuse as a pretender, but he perseveres then men-tions his excuse casually in his narrative of an incident such ashis saving, "So-and-so loves his brethren. He so much lovesthem to partake of his food. Today, he insisted that I should dothat, and I had no choice except to cool his heart." Or he maysay, "My mother is weak-hearted, compassionate in my regard.She thinks if I fast one day, I will fall sick, so she does not letme fast." Such is the doing of the ills of pretension. It does notjump to articulation except due to the deeply rooted pretensionin one's innermost. Similar to this is something which I haveseen more than once. Someone says, "I spent the night overthe house of so-and-so. During the sahar [pre-dawn] time, Iwanted to rise for the tahajjud. But I was concerned the owner

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of the house might think I was a pretender, so I did not standfor the prayers." Or he may say, "I did not worship during aparticular time for fear I would be regarded as a pretender."This poor person sees himself, when he does not pray or wor-ship his Lord, as being sincere to Allah Almighty, fleeing frompretension whereas in fact he has already fallen into it; bothhis nafs and Satan have taken control of him. In other words,man in such situations has two states: The first is his fear whenhe prays in someone's house or in the company of a crowd ofpeople that his prayers may be pretension, yet he knows him-self best and his weakness, and that he cannot safeguard hissincerity in public as he used to do in private; in this case, theprayer is abandoned so one may not fall into pretension.

The second is that he is concerned about people consideringhim as being a pretender, although he feels comfortable thathe is not praying pretentiously but purely for seeking nearnessto Allah. In this case, if he abandons a ritual, he will prove thathe is a pretender who does not like people to think anythingabout him except being sincere. Abandoning the worship in thefirst case was for the sake of Allah and in the second for thesake of the nafs and its desires, for the nafs, loves its reputa-tion to be good among the people. Such is love for life and em-inence. If one who is sincere to Allah sees in himself a desire toperform a commendable fast, for example, let him do so; hemust not pay attention to what others say about or think ofhim. And if he does not find in himself such a desire, he mustnot fast, and he must not pay attention to what is said abouthim. Rely on Allah and forget about them all. A sincere wor-shipper does not care about how people look at him or think ofhim. If he has no desire to fast, and Allah knows about it, hemust not want others to believe something different from whatAllah knows about him, thus confusing them. And if he wishesto fast for the sake of seeking nearness to Allah, he should con-tend himself with Allah's knowledge, associating none withHim.

SCIENTIFIC POINT TO ERADICATEPRETENSIONFROM THE THEOLOGICAL IMAM AL-KHOMEINIMAY ALLAH PROLONG HIS SHADE :

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He, may Allah prolong his shade, has said,

We would like to state m this regard something that may beeffective in treating this heart disease. According to evidence,revelation and observation, as Well as the traditions of the in-fallible Ones, peace be with them, and the Book of Allah, theGreat, according to His dominance over all beings. His main-tenance of all what needs to be maintained… , the hearts of allthe servants are under His control and in the grip of Hispower. Nobody can fare with the servants' hearts without thepermission of the Maintaining One and His evolving authoriza-tion. It can never be, Even those who have hearts, too, cannotfare with their hearts without His permission, the most ExaltedOne, and His dealing. The Holy Qur'an informs us of this fact,and so do the narratives about Ahl al-Bayt, peace be with them,who stated so by reference, explicitly and implicitly. Allah,Praise to Him, is the One Who owns the heart and Who fareswith it, when you are a weak servant incapable of faring withhearts without the dealing of the Truthful One, the most High.Rather, His will subdues yours as well as that of everything inexistence. So, if your pretension is to attract the servants'hearts and attention, to gain respect and status in the hearts,to earn a good reputation… , all these are outside your control:they are under the control of the Truthful One, the most Exal-ted. The Lord of Hearts, the One Who owns them, permitsthem to incline to whoever He wants. And your behavior mayresult in the opposite of what you want. We nave heard aboutand seen pretenders with two laces, haying impure hearts,those whose affair Was exposed and who gained the contraryof what they had desired. There is a reference to this in a sac-red tradition recorded in Al-Kafi as transmitted by Jarrah al-Madaini who quotes Abu Abdullah.

peace be with him, saying the following in his explanation ofthis verse: "Whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him do right-eous deeds and in the worship of his Lord admit no one as(His) partner" (Qur'an, 18:110): "Someone does some gooddeed not for the sake of Allah but so people may hold him inhigh esteem. He loves people to hear about what he does. Such

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person is one who associates a partner in the worship of hisLord." Then he said, "No servant does an act of righteousnessthen time passes by except that Allah will bring somethinggood out of it. And no servant does something wrong in secrecyand time passes by except that Allah will bring out somethingbad out of it for him."

You, my dear one, ought to seek good reputation with Allah.Plead to the One Who owns the hearts to let the hearts inclinetowards you. Work for Allah, and let your deed be purely forHis sake, for the most Exalted One will then make you loved bypeople in this world plus rewards you with good things andeternal blessings in the world of the hereafter. He will then en-hance the impression which you leave on people's hearts andmake you honored in both this life and in the one to come. Butif you are able, through practices and struggles, to rid yourselfof this love, too, do so in order that your heart may be pure,your deed in this direction will be sound, your heart will directitself towards Allah, your soul will be cleansed and the impur-ity of the self (nafs) will disappear, What benefit do you reapfrom the love of weaklings or from their hatred, or from fameamong poor servants of Allah? Even if we suppose there is abenefit, it will last for only few days, whereas the outcome ofthis love could drag you to pretension; so, God forbid, you willthen become a polytheist, a hypocrite, or an apostate.

And if we suppose that one's [prohibitive] matter in this lifewill be veiled from the eyes of the people, but in the presenceof the divine justice, and in the audience of the righteous ser-vants of Allah, His great Prophets, those who are close to Himand His angels, he will be exposed, and he will surely bear theimpact of shame, finding none to help him. You have no ideawhat a scandal in that Day it will be and what shame and dark-ness which none knows save Allah. It is the Day when the un-believer will say, "Woe unto me! If only I were (mere) dust!"(Qur'an, 78:40). But it will be of no avail to him. You, poor soul,for the sake of partial love and fame, which are of no benefit,among the servants of the Almighty, turned away from theseblessings, lost the Pleasure of Allah, Glory to Him. You madeyourself an object of His wrath. You substituted the deeds

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whereby you can achieve the abode of honor, the eternal life,the everlasting happiness, life in the highest stations ofParadise.., with the darkness of shirk and hypocrisy, and youprepared for yourself the sighs, the regret, the intense tor-ment, becoming a prisoner in Sijjeen as described in a sacrednarrative in (Al-Kafi and cited from Abu Abdullah, peace beupon him. In it, the Prophet (a.s) says, "An angel gleefully as-cends with the news about a deed of a servant. If he ascendscarrying reports about the servant's Mood deed. Allah, themost Exalted, the most Great, says, Deposit it in Sijjeen, for hedid not seek My pleasure when he did it.'" I and you, in ourcondition, cannot imagine Sijjeen, nor can we understand therecord of the deeds of the sinners or see the picture of thesedeeds that are in Sijjeen, but we see their reality when we areincapacitated and have lost touch with any remedy.

So, wake up, my dear one, from your sleep, do awy withheedlessness and laziness, weigh your deeds with the scales ofreason before they are weighed in that world. Hold yourself toaccount before you are held, and rid the mirror of your heart ofshirk and hypocrisy and of having two faces. Do not permityour heart to rust with shirk and apostasy lest it should be af-flicted with the fire of the Hereafter. Do not let the light ofnature be replaced with the darkness of disbelief. Do notrender to loss the nature whereby Allah created people, do notbetray this trust of Allah, cleanse the heart's mirror so the lightof the beauty of the True One shine in it, thus it will be moreprecious to you than this whole world and everything in it, andthe fire of divine love will then burn in the heart, burning everylove that you have in your heart for anything else, and you willnot accept to replace one moment of it with the whole world,and you will enjoy the pleasure of remembrance of Allah com-pared to which all animal pleasures will be nothing at all. Ifyou are not worthy of this station, if these images appear inyour eyes to be strange, do not abandon the divine blessings inthe world of the Hereafter about which the Holy Qur'an has in-formed you as well as the traditions of the Infallible Ones in ex-change for attracting the hearts of the beings. Do not losethese rewards, do not deprive yourself of such blissful things

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for the sake of an imagined fame that lasts few days, and donot trade eternal happiness for continuous pain …

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Chapter 5Call To Sincerity From The Professor OfTheology, Imam AL-Khomeini, May HisShade Be Prolonged

He, may Allah prolong his shade, has said, "Be informed thatthe real Owner of the domain, the One Who truly grants boun-ties, the One Who grants us blissful things, having preparedthem for us even before we came into this world, prepared thenutritional food that is good and suitable to our weak stomach,the One Who cultures and serves with love as great as moun-tains, so His service may be obligation-free, with suitable envir-onment and air, in addition to all His apparent and hiddenblissful things. He prepared us for the world of the hereafterand that of the barzakh before we get there. This Master ofblessings wants our hearts to love him, to love His Greatness,with sincerity, and the result of this love will be for our own be-nefit, too. Despite all of this, we do not listen to His command-ment but disobey Him and take a path that does not lead us toHis pleasure: so, what a great injustice we have committed!How have we argued with the King of Kings?! And the loss isonly our own; His domain is not hurt in the least, nor can weget out of His power and authority. It makes no difference toHim whether we believe in His unity or not. If we are know-ledgeable about Allah, fearing Him, pure of souls, all this is forour own good. And if we are unbelievers or polytheists, we onlyharm our own selves. Allah is independent of the worlds, oftheir obedience, sincerity and worship. His domain is notharmed by our rebellion.

Our shirk and hypocrisy do not diminish it. But since He isthe most Merciful of those who have mercy, His spacious

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mercy and great wisdom have required that He leads us to thepaths of guidance, the ways of distinguishing goodness fromevil, beauty from ugliness, and to show us what causes human-ity to slip away, what robs it of happiness, and the great boonfor such guidance belongs to Allah. The favor belongs to Himfor whatever acts of adoration, sincerity and worship we per-form. So long as our visions, and the eyes whereby we can seethe barzakh, are not open, we arc unable to comprehend thisfact. And so long as we in this narrow and dark world, in thisdark nature, are shackled with the chains of time, jailed in thedark extended place… , we are unable to realize the greatboons that belong to Allah Almighty, and we cannot imaginethe divine blessings that lie in this sincerity, adoration andguidance.

Beware of thinking that we do a favor to the great Prophetsof Allah, or to His honored friends, or to the nation's scholarswho are the guides to our happiness and salvation, who havesaved us from ignorance, darkness and torment, who invited usto the world of celestial light, happiness, elation and greatness.They bear the burdens of hardship and exhaustion when edu-cating us so we may be saved from the darkness that lies infalse beliefs and compounded ignorance and from the pres-sures and suffering that arc the manifestations of a lowly con-duct, from the engulfing fearful images of the ugly deeds, andso we may instead earn the celestial lights, the norms of happi-ness and elation, the pleasures of the soul, the feeling of rest-fulness, the huris with large lovely eyes, and the mansions thatwe cannot possibly imagine. Our world of this domain, asgreatly spacious as it is, cannot bear one single outfit of thoseof Paradise. These eyes of ours cannot bear to see a single hairof the huris with their large lovely eyes. Yet the angelic pictureof beliefs and deeds has been realized, through divine inspira-tion, by the great prophets, especially by the one who had thetotal revelation, the inclusive constitution, namely the seal ofprophets (a.s). The prophets saw it, heard it, and called us to-wards it whHe we, poor souls, arc like children who do the op-posite of what the wise rule. Rather, humans even call theseprophets wrong, argue with them and always do the oppositeof what they enjoin. Yet those pure and contented

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personalities, the good and pure souls, due to their compassionand mercy towards the servants of AIM, did not fall short incalling upon the ignorant one, pulling them in the direction ofParadise and happiness through any means of power andwealth, without asking them for any reward at all.

The only reward asked by the Messenger of Allah (a.s) wasthat we be kind to his near in kin. Perhaps the picture of thiskindness in the world of the hereafter may manifest itself inthe limn of the most glittering light for us. This reward is forour own good, too, so it may get us to reach happiness andmercy. Thus, the reward of following the message is creditedfor us, and we benefited from it: "Say: 'I ask no reward of you :It is in sour interest.: My reward is due only from Allah'"(Qur'an, 34:47). How can we, the poor ones, do them a favor,and what a great benefit do we reap from being sincere tothem?! What favor do you vest upon the scholars of the nation,upon the scholar who explains the difficult issues and the rul-ings, or upon the honored Prophet, or upon the Holy One, themost Great?! Each person, according to his level and station,leads us towards the path of guidance. Indeed, we owe them somuch, too much to be able to reward them in this world, theworld that is not at all suitable for rewarding them. Indeed, toAllah, to His Messenger, and to His friends belongs the favorlust as the Almighty has said: "Say: 'Do not count your Islam asa favor to me. Nay! Allah has conferred a favor on you whenHe guided you to the faith, if you are true and sincere. TrulyAllah knows the secrets of the heavens and the earth, and Allahsees well all that you do'" (Qur'an, 49:17-18). If we are truthfulin our claim of belief, the favor belongs to Allah for havingguided us to thus believe. Allah sees what we do not, and lieknows the images of our deeds, of our belief, of our submissionto Him in the world of what is unknown to us. As for us, thepoor ones, we know none of the truth, so we learn from the onewho is knowledgeable about them and feel indebted to him,and we follow the scholar and feel indebted to him, and we of-fer congregational prayers behind the scholar and feel in-debted to him, although we owe them without knowing it.Hence, when we feel that we arc the ones who do them a favor,

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such feeling turns our deeds upside down, hurling them intoSijjeen, rendering them to an utter loss.

THE SECOND LEVEL OF PRETENSION

From what we have stated, it is learned from our greatestprofessor and best teacher of ethics. Imam al-Khomeini, mayhis shade be prolonged, that the above-stated level of preten-sion occupies in the principles of beliefs the first, the most in-tense and the ugliest of all.

As for the second level of pretension, it lies in tHe virtuousdemeanors and the commendable ethics. It, too, according towhat is stated by the imam, may his shade be prolonged, hastwo stations: The first is that a person demonstrates the com-mendable characteristics and the virtuous demeanors in orderto attract people's hearts towards him. The second is that hedeclares he dissociates himself from the contemptible charac-teristics and ugly demeanors for the same purpose. Our pro-fessor has said the following in this regard: "Pretension in thislevel, although it does not lie in the intensity of ugliness as isthe case with the first station, but after attention is drawn tosomething that may drag the pretender in this level, too, towhat places him in the first level. There is an image for man inthe spiritual world that could be non-human because it is con-nected to the domain of the nafs and to its faculties. So, if ithas virtuous human faculties, these faculties would make yourspiritual picture human, if you are gathered in [the form of]these faculties once you do not get out of moderation; the fac-ulties are virtuous when the evil-insinuating nafs does not playhavoc with it, nor the path of the nafs interferes in forming, it.

Actually, our professor/mentor, may his shade be prolonged,used to say that the scales in the wrongful practice and in theright legitimate practice is actually the path of the nafs or thepath of righteousness: If the one treading the path does soseeking what is right, going in the direction of Allah, his prac-tice is right and legitimate, and Allah, Praise and Exaltation be-long to Him, will help him in his effort according to the text ofthis sacred verse: "(As for) those who strive in Our (cause), We

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will certainly guide them to Our paths, for truly Allah is withthose who do what is right" (Qur'an, 29:69). He will thus be at-tracted towards happiness, abandoning the insinuations ofegotism, leaving behind the will of the nab.. It is well knownthat one who demonstrates to people his good manners andvirtuous demeanors is prompted thus by his egotistical im-petus, feeling conceited, loving and adoring himself. Loving Al-lah can never coexist with egotism. Seeing Him can never co-exist with seeing the it is simply impossible, a mere fancy. Solong as the domain of your presence is represented by youregotism, as you love power, prominence, fame and dominanceover Allah's servants, your faculties can never be virtuous, norcan your manners be divine because the real factor in the do-main of your existence is Satan: neither your angelic aspectnor your inner-self reflect those of a human. After the angelicbarzakh eye opens, it will portray you not as a human beingbut, say, as one of the demons. It is impossible for the divinenorms of knowledge and the sound belief in the Unity of theAlmighty to exist in a heart that is an abode for the demons. Ifyour domain does not become human, and as long as yourheart is not purified of such crookedness, from any form ofconceit, your heart will never be an abode for the Truthful One,the Almighty. One qudsi tradition states the following: "Myearth has no sufficient room for Me nor my heavens, but thereis room for Me in the heart of My believing servant." So, thereis none in existence that is a mirror reflecting the beauty of theloved One except the heart of a believer. The One Who fareswith the believer's heart is the Almighty, not the nafs, and thefactor in its existence is the loved One. The heart of a believeris not one of a person who sticks to his view no matter what,prattling; the heart of the believer is in the fingers of the mostMerciful One, turning it however He pleases. The One whofares with the domain of a human heart is Allah. Turning andalternating it is done through the will of Allah Almighty. You,poor soul, who is worshipping himself, with whose heart Satanand ignorance fare, having put an end to the faring of theTruthful Almighty with your heart, through what belief do youexpect to be a source for the manifestation of the Truthful Oneand of [His] absolute domain? Be informed that as long as youremain thus, as long as this vice, the dominance of the will of

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the nafs over you, you are a disbeliever in Allah, treading thepath of the hypocrites even if you imagine yourself as being aMuslim, a believer in Allah.

WISE ADMONISHMENT FROM THE PROFESSOR OFTHEOLOGY, IMAM AL-KHOMEINI,MAY HIS SHADELAST

Wake up from your sleep, dear one, abandon negligence andtardiness, let your eyes abstain from indifferent sleep, and beinformed that Allah Almighty created you for Himself as thequdsi tradition states: "0 son of Adam! I created all things foryour sake and created you for Myself." In the [divine] addresswhereby Moses was honored, the Almighty said, "… And Ichose you for Myself (Qur'an, 20:41). Turn your heart into anabode for Him, as He has also said, "My earth and heavens donot have room enough for Me, yet the heart of My believingservant does." So, you and your heart are among the divinecanons. Allah Almighty is jealous; therefore, beware of daringto cause your own perdition and be exposed to the law of theTruthful One, the Almighty. Fear Allah's jealousy lest Heshould expose you in this world to a scandal which, no matterhow hard you try to rectify, you are unable to rectify it. You arewithin the domain of your own self and in the presence of thehonored angels and great prophets, yet you dare to violate thedivine canon and the virtuous manners whereby the friends ofAllah try to imitate Him! You hand them over to someone elseother than the Truthful One; you grant your heart to the enemyof the Almighty, committing shirk in your inner-self and in itsdomain; so, beware lest the Almighty should expose the do-main of your own self and expose you before the angels near toHim. Moreover, He will expose you before this world, afflictyou with a scandal that can never be rectified, scandalize youwith a rift that can never be sewn together again. Allah, Gloryto Him, covers shortcomings, but lie also is jealous. He is themost Merciful of those who show mercy, yet He also is themost tough when it comes to penalizing. He covers faults solong as they do not go overboard. When a fault does, God for-bid, due to such a momentous act and ethical scandal. His jeal-ousy overshadows his covering as you heard in a sacred

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tradition. Be aware, then, of all of this and go back to yoursenses; express your regret to Him for He, the most ExaltedOne, is Merciful and tries to help people obtain His mercy. Ifyou return to Him, He will hide your past shortcomings, not ac-quainting anyone with them, vesting virtue upon you, personi-fying in you the commendable manners, making you the mirrorof His attributes, carrying out your own will in that world; Hiswill is effective in all worlds, according to the following tradi-tion about the people of Paradise: "An angel comes to them [tothe residents of Paradise] seeking permission to enter. Once heenters, he will hand them over a letter from Allah after havingconveyed the greeting of the Almighty to them. In the letterthere is an address to everyone. Everyone is addressed thus:'From the Ever-living, the Sustaining Who never dies. I say to athing BE, and it is, and I have made you this day able to say BEto a thing, and it is.'"

The Prophet (a.s) goes on to say that it is then that whatevera resident of Paradise commands, it comes to be 1. The com-mand there will be yours if you want to achieve such a status.If you submit your will to Allah, He, Praise to Him, will makeyou the manifestation of His will, faring with the affairs; thedomain of creating will be at your disposal in the Hereafter.This is different from the impossible false authorizing.

1 I would like to add to this what the knowledgeable sheikh,who is familiar with the lshaqi precious stone, one of the pre-cious stones of wisdom, has said: "He creates, through His de-termination, anything that can have an existence from beyondsuch determination, when the determination itself keeps safe-guarding it." This is recorded on p. 124 of the Message of Un-ity by Hassan Zadeh Amuli. The tracing of the narrative in thesaid hook, AIFutuhat al-Makkiyya [the Meccan campaigns],Vol. 2, p, 150, at the end of Chapter 73, Query No. 154, BulaqPress edition.

You, dear one, ought to choose for yourself one of these twomatters, for Allah Almighty is independent of us, of the entirecreation, of our sincerity and the sincerity of everyone andeverything in existence.

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THIRD LEVEL OF PRETENSION

This is the pretension that is known to be found among jur-ists, may Allah be pleased with them, and it, too, has twodegrees :

The FIRST degree is that one carries out his action andwhatever worship is legislated for him, or through what hedeems as rationally commendable, intending thereby to showhis acts of adoration to the people and win their hearts, intend-ing to be pretentious through that act of worship or through itsmethod, or condition, or a part thereof, as described by our fel-lows in their books of jurisprudence.

The SECOND degree is that he abandons a deed in order toreach the same result. The greatest professor of theology,imam al-Khomeini: says the following: "Be informed that pre-tension in this level is more frequent and common than all oth-er levels because most of us are not qualified for both above-stated levels. In this aspect, Satan does not intercept our wayfrom that highway. But, since most people are worshippers, up-holding the rituals and formal manifestations of adoration,Satan is active here more than anywhere else, and the plots ofthe nafs in this level are many more. In other words, sincemost people, according to their quality, live in a physicalParadise, earning stations in the Hereafter through doing gooddeeds and abandoning bad ones, Satan, too, enters upon themfrom this door, instilling in their hearts the roots of pretensionand deception in their deeds, so much so that branches growout of them and leaves, substituting their good deeds with badones,

( 50 ) hurling them into hell and the lower stations throughthese same rituals and acts of adoration, rendering the meanswhereby the abode of the Hereafter are built requiring theirvery destruction, introducing into an act what is supposed toget one in the 'Illiyyeen station to be turned by the angels, ac-cording to the command of the Almighty, into one qualifyingthe individual to be hurled into the inferno. The persons who fit

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in this level, who have neither rations nor a conveyance for thetrip [to the Hereafter], must persist in cultivating themselvesfully, and they must not neglect this matter, too, God forbid,lest they should be among the fellows of hell: They lose track ofthe path to happiness, and the gates of Paradise will be closedbefore them whHe those of the fires will he opened." Thus theimam, may his shade endure, ends his statement.

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Chapter 6Levels Of Pretension From The Aspects OfWhat Is Hidden and What Is Manifest, APrecise Research in The Issue Of Pretension

Be informed that pretension, in as far as being manifest orhidden, has several levels. Some levels are obvious, some aremore obvious, whereas some others are hidden, and some aremore so.

The FIRST level: It is the most obvious level: Someone under-takes an action in order to show off in a way so as if the needto pretend is not there, he will not do it. It is the most obviousof its levels and needs no explanation.

The SECOND level: It is a little bit more hidden: The pre-tending side is not initially prompted to undertake the action:rather, the side that urges the origin of the action is the Divineside, the nearness to the Almighty, but the non-divine side in-trudes into it, so much so that the act, despite the care of thisside, becomes easier to undertake without it, such as onewhose habit is to perform the tahajjud and to perform the nightprayer (qiyam). He performs it every night, but when feelinglazy and drowsy. But when he has a guest, he stands up fromhis bed with agility and ease. Had he not hoped for rewardsfrom Allah, he would not have abandoned the pleasure of sleepnot only due to the presence of the guest but this presence hadan impact on him, making it easier for him to pray and to offertahajjud, and the prayer will then be easier than it would havebeen if he had been by himself.

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The THIRD level: In it, the pretension is more hidden than itis in the second level: The non-divine side has nothing to dowith the original intention to undertake the action, nor in theease of doing it. But, at the same time, the substance of preten-sion is present in the heart. It is known that such pretensioncannot be identified except through the precise experimentsuch as suspected terminal physical ailments since these, aftermedical analyses, indicate the presence of a disease which thedoctor starts treating. So is the case with this spiritual disease:Precision is a must in diagnosing it. If some traces of the ail-ment are found, its substance will be known to be present. Itsindication is that one must test himself at a time when peopleaccidentally get to see his adoration. Will he then feel happyand elated on account of their seeing him or not? An individualmay undertake an action with a sincere intention, desiring nopretension in it: rather, he even avoids pretending and hatingit. But, at the same time, if he realizes that someone accident-ally gets to know about it, he becomes happy, as if he feelsrestful when he gets to know that the individual saw how thatact exhausted him. Such happiness and elation form the markof pretension which is hidden within him, inside him, fromwhich elation drips. Had he directed his attention towards any-one other than Allah, and had he paid no attention to people,there is no sense in this elation when he knows that otherscame to know about his I righteous] deed. Happiness [in such acase] is like a fire that is hidden inside a stone. It becomesevident when the stone hits iron and the hidden fire comes outto the open and becomes obvious when the stone hits a stone.People who are acquainted with and knowledgeable about thestone hitting the iron expose the hidden pretension. At thattime, if this person does not react to this pleasure, that is,when happiness appears in his heart, and if he does not rebukehimself for it, reprimand it and meet it with hatred, this pleas-ure will be like nutrition for the disease's substance. It growsundetected, and the effect of that growth gradually creates inhim the need to find a reason for people having, to be familiarwith his work. It is like talking about a subject and sayingsomething casually. For example, if he is one of those who of-fer tahajjud, he talks about how the weather is cold or hot atthe end of the night, or about something like that, so that

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others will understand that he was awake at that time [fortahajjud].

It may even be more hidden than that, too, such as one doesnot say anything to suggest to others familiarity with them,with his actions, neither explicitly nor implicitly. But peoplecan get to know it from the way he dresses himself, his appear-ance or general conditions, such as drowsiness, the low tone ofhis voice, how his lips are withered… , etc. Or he may notwatch himself during his prostration in order to avoid hittingthe ground so prostrating will bear an impact on his forehead.Deep inside his conscience he will be elated about it, that is,that he has a visible mark of adoration. Or he may be at amourning commemoration for Imam al-Hussain (a.s) or a gath-ering for supplication. At the end of the gathering, he does notremove the tears from his eyes hilly. There are marks likethese, and even more hidden than that, which show no such in-dications: This means that he may perform a [righteous] deedsincerely without desiring anyone to notice it, nor does he likeit to show, yet he expects people to start greeting him, to begenerous to him, to meet him with a smile, with respect, topraise him, to be energetic in carrying out his errands, to betolerant as they trade with him, etc. If he goes -to a meetingplace, they make room for him. If anyone falls short of doingany of these things, he will find it in his heart to be too heavy,and he will find it unsuitable for his status. It is as if he is re-warded by people for the worship which he hides, so much sothat had he not 'performed such worship, he would not havedemanded all of this, nor would he have found it unacceptablewhen people treat him any less than that. In my view, this hasroots which also extend to conceit. In reality, he demands thatfrom Allah, the most Glorified One, and even wonders why theAlmighty did not cast love for him in the hearts of people sothey may respect him although he did perform that "sincere"act of worship! As a whole, unless the presence of worship issimilar to its absence with regard to everything relevant topeople, and had one not contended himself with the fact thatAllah knows about what he does, such an individual will not befree of pretension, even as low as the sound of ants' tracks, nor

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is he free of conceit either which we, by the will of Allah, willdiscuss.

It is possible this much pretension voids one's rewards.Nobody is spared such type of pretension except Allah's sin-cere worshippers, for Satan can have no way of reaching them.Perhaps a reference to this lies in a statement by the Com-mander of the Faithful Ali (a.s) who is quoted as having said."Allah, the most Great, the most Exalted, will say to those whorecite [the Holy Qur'an in public] on the Judgment Day: 'Didpeople not sell to you cheap? Did people not start greetingyou'? Were your needs not taken care of by people?' Accordingto tradition, [the Almighty adds saying] 'There are no wages foryou here: you were paid your wages in full.'"

Abdullah Mubarak is quoted as having said that it is narratedabout Wahab son of Muneer saying that a man from among thetravelers said to his fellows, "We left behind the wealth and thesons fearing oppression, now we fear lest more oppression hasafflicted us than that with which people who have wealth havebeen afflicted! If one of us is met, he likes to be respected be-cause of the station of his piety. If he asks for something, helikes to be given on account of his faith. And if he buyssomething, he likes the seller to sell it to him cheaper becauseof his faith!" This reached the knowledge of their king whorode among a crowd of people. The valley and the mountainbecame full of people. That traveler inquired about it and wastold that the king was coming. He asked his servant to bringhim food. He was brought beans and oil which he kept stuffingin his mouth, eating violently. The king asked the travelers,"Where is your fellow?" They pointed to him, whereupon theIcing asked him. "How are you?" The man said, "Like anyoneelse," but according to another way of telling this incident. "Iam fine." The king said. "There is nothing good with this man."leaving him. The traveler said, "Praise be to Allah Who sentyou away from me, thinking ill of me!"

Yes, my dear one, the sincere ones were apprehensive of hid-den pretension, trying hard to mislead people about their right-eous deeds out of their concern about hiding them more so

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than people's concern about hiding their bad deeds and sins,all of this in the hope their good deeds will be sincere, so Allahwill reward them on the Judgment Day by hiding these baddeeds and sins from people. These sincere folks knew and be-came convinced that Allah Almighty does not accept anythinghut what is purely for His sake, for he has said. "And they havebeen commanded no more than this: To worship Allah, offeringHim sincere devotion, being true (in faith): To establish regularprayers, and to practice regular charity: such is the right andstraight religion" (Qur'an, 98:5). The Judgment Day is the Dayof their want and need for righteous deeds: it is the Day whenneither wealth nor offspring will be of any benefit save for onewho reaches Allah with a sound heart.

A scholar has provided this example: The desert travelers gothere with the best currency in circulation because they knowthat the need for it is the greatest in the desert, and that thedesert people accept only the best currency. The same appliesto those who have hearts. They witness the Day of Judgmentand the rations whereby they supply themselves: piety, know-ing that the best of rations is piety. They bring about deedsthat are free of pretension, protecting themselves against alllevels of pretension.

UNIQUE QUR'ANIC JEWEL

When narrating the story of Yousuf (Joseph) and his brothers,the Qur'an states that alter the latter having come to Egyptand asked Yousuf to provide them with provisions and rations,the Qur'an states the following: "At length, once he had fur-nished them with provisions (suitable) for them, he put thedrinking cup in his brother's saddle-bag. Then a crier shoutedout, '0 you (in) the caravan! Behold! You are thieves, withoutdoubt!'' (Qur'an, 12:70).

One of the men of knowledge says, "It is not right to thinkthat Yousuf accused his brother of theft so he would take himand keep him in his company because if Yousufs purpose wasto keep his brother with him, he did not have to accuse him inthis ugly way, embarrassing him and letting him fall in the

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public's esteem as a thief although he is the son of the prophetof Allah. Rather, he could have found another excuse to do thatwithout scratching his dignity. If he had to, he could have doneso secretly, say, in a confidential personal meeting rather thanbefore the public, so much so that a crier had to cry out to thecaravan, charging it of theft. So, what prompted this announce-ment to the caravan which contained Canaanites who would re-turn to the land of Canaan and the robbery committed by aprophet of Allah would be the core of the talk in all meetingplaces and gatherings'? Men will talk about it and so will thewomen, and the reputation of a house about which peopleknow nothing but honor and spirituality will be ruined. Therehas to be something hidden in this matter."

The man of knowledge goes on to say, "The hidden matter isthat reaching truly divine dignity is not easy except throughpublic humiliation. We tie dignity to the truth because postsand stations among the public are not truly dignifying. Truedignity is in reaching nearness to Allah. In other words, it isneighborliness of Allah, the company of the Lord of the Worlds,a station of the truth near an Able King. The company of Allah'sservants is the company of Allah. Whoever loves you loves Al-lah, and whoever hates you hates Allah. Whoever Allahchooses, He starts with you, Whoever visits his brother in Al-lah, the Almighty says. 'You have visited Me'. This dignity doesnot become available except when conditions are met thegreatest of which is humiliation by the people. If you wish, youcan say that the greatest obstacle in the path towards Allahand towards reaching Allah's courtyard is love for prominenceand eminence among the people.

So long as the heart remains attached to such love, the own-er of this heart cannot reach his destination as this narrativetells us: Two ferocious wolves, one of which attacks a herd ofcattle from its beginning and the other from its end, are as det-rimental to one's creed as loving distinction and a high station.Therefore, the worldly mastership is rejected in the eyes ofAllah's friends who hate it as the Master of the Pious has said,'By the One Who split the seed and created the breeze, had itnot been for the presence of what is present… , you would have

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found this world of yours less important in my esteem than agoat's sneeze.' One who treads this path must take this loveout of his heart, even if it means dropping his esteem frompublic eyes if he does not feel secure regarding the ills and det-riments of his own nuts, just as severing a part of the body ispermissible, even obligatory, when there is concern about thehealth of the rest of the bodily parts. Therefore, the virtuous al-Naraqi has narrated in his hook Mi'raj al-Sa'ada about a schol-ar reciting the Qur'an in front of their students and sincereones deliberately in a way about which they claim he has noknowledge and that he is illiterate. Committing a small harm inorder to attain a great deal of goodness is rational and accord-ing to the Shari'a permissible. This concept has many testimo-nials from those who tread the path towards Aim, and manyrefer to it in their poems.

One of the men of knowledge says, "I saw once in a visionsomeone whom I did not know. He handed me a piece of paperand ordered me to sign it. I signed it without knowing what iswritten in it or be familiar with its contents. Once I have signedit, the person who gave it to me said, 'Our narrative is quitehard: it is not tolerated except by an angel who is near to Al-lah, or a sent prophet, or a servant whose heart Allah testedwith conviction.' He read this tradition and said, 'I undoubtedlychoose humiliation.' So, I woke up from my sleep and came toknow that I had signed the document of my humiliation amongthe people so I may win through such humiliation the ability tobear the difficult traditions and the secrets of Ahl al-Bayt,peace be with them." This topic has a lengthy continuation, sowe shall leave it for its place and people.

Generally, the impurities of hidden pretension arc numerous,countless. As much as one realizes on his own about how a hu-man being or an animal becomes acquainted with his adora-tion, he still has a branch of pretension. Since he has no hopeset on animals and infants being thus acquainted with his ador-ation, he does not care whether they are present [when he isinvolved in an act of adoration] or if they are absent, whetherthey notice his adoration or not. If one is sincere, having no de-sire about anyone [with regard to his acts of adoration], lie will

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think very lowly of their knowledge of his acts of adoration be-cause he knows that they, too, are like children: They cannotbring him sustenance, nor can they bear any impact on his des-tiny, nor increase his rewards. Rather, they cannot bring theirown selves any good, or any harm, or death, or life, or resur-rection … , etc.

At this point, in order to explain what we are driving at, wehave to submit a question because the matter is very import-ant: We see most people feeling glad when their good deedsare recognized; so, is such feeling of happiness lauded by theShari'a, or is it held as contemptible?

The answer is that it is not lauded at all, nor is it held as con-temptible either. Instead, it is praised in some cases and heldwith contempt in others. Here are the details :

The lauded one falls into four categories :

The FIRST is that one's intention is to hide the acts of obedi-ence and sincerity to Allah, but when people noticed what hewas doing, he has to remember that Allah, the most PraisedOne, by virtue of His Attribute expressed in this supplication:"0 One Who manifests what is beautiful!" has manifestedsomething beautiful, so he is led to think that Allah has faredwell with him: The perfection of His munificence is that Hehides obedience and disobedience. But Allah, due to the beautyof His care, hides the man's acts disobedience whHe manifest-ing those of his obedience. This is a great act of kindness fromthe part of Allah Almighty in his regard, hence the man is veryhappy on account of Allah having done such a nice thing forhim, not because people praise what he has done or the statusin their hearts which he now occupies. It is as though he seesthrough it that Allah, due to His favor and mercy, has acceptedhis deed, so he is happy about it. "Say: 'In the bounty of Allah,and in I His mercy, let them rejoice!'" (Qur'an, 10:58).

The SECOND is that his happiness stems from I his convic-tion that] since Allah Almighty manifests what is beautiful inhim when covering up what is ugly in this life, He will do

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likewise in the Hereafter as well, for Allah is the Lord of theHereafter and of this life. Actually, His mercy in the Hereafteris broader than it is in the life of this world as referred to in thetraditions. It is as though he is repeating what Imam Zayn al-'Abidin (a.s) has said in one of his supplications thus: "Lord!Just Os You have covered up sins that I have committed in thislife, I have a greater need that You will veil them in the Here-after." His elation in the first case is due to accepting what isin the present time without considering the future, whHe in thesecond his mind is set about the future. One tradition statesthe following: "When Allah covers up the sin of one of His ser-vants in the life of this world, He covers it up for him in theHereafter as well."

The THIRD is that his elation stems from his belief that hope-fully those who see his act of adoration will emulate him, hencehe will have an increase in the rewards. Even if he undertakesthe action publicly with this same intention, he will not be viol-ating the spirit of sincerity: He will have the reward, due to hisintention, as though he undertook that deed privately firstly,and secondly due to Allah Almighty manifesting his deed andletting others emulate his act of obedience to Him, and onewho thus feels elated is quite justified. The manifestation of in-dications of benefit is sweet and undoubtedly prompts one tobe happy bout it.

The FOURTH is this: When he sees how those who noticedhis act of adoration praise him for being obedient to his Lord,he will feel happy and glad that they, too, obey Allah and loveto see people obeying Him as well; their hearts incline towardsthe good deeds. There are some people who see obedientpeople and hold them in contempt, or feel envious, or speak illof them, or ridicule them, or charge them with pretensionrather than praise them for their act of adoration. This elationis due to seeing how good the belief of Allah's servants is, howgood their souls are. The sign of sincerity in this type is thatone feels happy when people praise someone else just as hefeels happy when they praise him, perhaps even more so, as itis quite obvious.

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As regarding what is contemptible, it is when one feels happyfor having earned a status in the hearts of people, so peoplemay now praise and magnify him: This is hated and is con-temptible, and surely Allah knows best.

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Chapter 7Wise AdmonishMment From The ProfessorOf Theology, Imam Khomeini,May HisShade, Endure

Quite often, it so happens that a pretender does not pay at-tention to the fact that pretension has penetrated his actions,that his good deeds are a pretense and worth absolutely noth-ing. This is so because the traps of the self (nafs) and those ofSatan are quite minute and transparent. Humanity's path isvery narrow and dark: Unless man fully examines, he does notpay attention to what he does.

One thinks that his deeds are purely for the sake of earningthe Pleasure of Allah, but they instead please Satan. Since it isthe human nature to be egotistical, such love for one's own selfveils him from seeing his own faults. For example, earning thescience of religion, which is one of the important acts of obedi-ence and adoration, may afflict one with pretension in thisgreat form of adoration even whHe he is unmindful, unaware,of it. He, as we have already stated, due to the thick curtain,the curtain of self-love, likes to solve a scholarly problem in thepresence of scholars and chiefs in a way which nobody elsecame up with. It will make him stand out, according to his ownthinking. The more he explains the problem sufficiently, at-tracting the attention of those present, the more elated hefeels. If someone opposes him, he has to overcome and humili-ate him; he has to make him lower his head before people, for-cing his own argument on him, his opponent, whether it isright or wrong. After vanquishing the opponent, he feels withinhimself that he has distinguished himself and earned a place ofprominence. If a master believes what he says, so much the

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better. And the poor man is unaware that although he earned astatus among the scholars and men of virtue, he dropped in theesteem of his Lord, the King of kings in all domains Who ordersthe deed of such an individual to cause him to be hurled intoSijjeen.

Quite often, it so happens that a pretender does not pay at-tention to the fact that pretension has penetrated his actions,that his good deeds are a pretense and worth absolutely noth-ing. This is so because the traps of the self (nafs) and those ofSatan are quite minute and transparent. Humanity's path isvery narrow and dark: Unless man fully examines, he does notpay attention to what he does.One thinks that his deeds are purely for the sake of earning thePleasure of Allah, but they instead please Satan. Since it is thehuman nature to be egotistical, such love for one's own selfveils him from seeing his own faults. For example, earning thescience of religion, which is one of the important acts of obedi-ence and adoration, may afflict one with pretension in thisgreat form of adoration even whHe he is unmindful, unaware,of it. He, as we have already stated, due to the thick curtain,the curtain of self-love, likes to solve a scholarly problem in thepresence of scholars and chiefs in a way which nobody elsecame up with. It will make him stand out, according to his ownthinking. The more he explains the problem sufficiently, at-tracting the attention of those present, the more elated hefeels. If someone opposes him, he has to overcome and humili-ate him; he has to make him lower his head before people, for-cing his own argument on him, his opponent, whether it isright or wrong. After vanquishing the opponent, he feels withinhimself that he has distinguished himself and earned a place ofprominence. If a master believes what he says, so much thebetter. And the poor man is unaware that although he earned astatus among the scholars and men of virtue, he dropped in theesteem of his Lord, the King of kings in all domains Who ordersthe deed of such an individual to cause him to be hurled intoSijjeen.

Lord! Do purge our hearts of the impurity of shirk and hypo-crisy! Purify the mirror of our hearts from the adornment of

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loving this world which is the cause of all these matters. Be ourCompanion, help us, we poor souls who are afflicted with lov-ing ourselves, with loving distinction and eminence, along thisdangerous journey, this path that has many obstacles, the nar-row and dark one, surely You can do anything at all, Al-lahomma Ameen.

Among the important acts of adoration in Islam is the con-gregational prayer service in which the distinction of the imamis greater: therefore, Satan penetrates in it more than in oth-ers. His enmity towards the imam is greater. Satan stands todeprive the imam of this virtue, empty his deed of sincerity,thus .causing him to be lodged in Sijjeen, rendering him associ-ating a partner with Allah, the most Great. Satan enters intothe heart of imams of congregational prayers from variouspaths such as conceit and pretension, which is making a showof this form of worship before the public in order to win astatus in their hearts and earn the reputation of being greatand sublime. For example, Satan sees so-and-so, who is a greatworshipper, having attended his congregational prayers,whereupon he increases his submission, bringing him closer tohimself through various means and tricks in order to get him inthe end to fall in his trap. He reminds the imam in his place ofmeeting, or through another way, to let people know that "So-and-so worshipper attends my congregational prayer service,"finding in his heart love for this person who attends his ser-vice, demonstrating love and sincerity to him in a degree whichhe does not demonstrate to Allah Almighty or to His close ser-vants even for one moment in his lifetime, especially if the at-tendant of the prayer service is a respected businessman. If,God forbid, a man of distinction attends the prayer service be-cause of losing track of his path, so he joins the ranks in hiscongregation, the calamity will then be greater. Satan, at thesame time, does not leave the imam alone whose group is smal-ler in number. He attends and insinuates to him to let peopleunderstand that "I have abandoned the world and I pray in thequarter's small mosque with the poor and the indigents." [hisimam is like his predecessor, even worse, because he nurturesin his heart the vice of jealousy, too, permitting its tree to pro-duce its fruit. Since he had no share of the good things in this

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life. Satan deprives him of his share in the Hereafter as well,rendering him a loser in this life and in the one to come.

This Satan does not leave me or yourselves alone when weare not imams of the congregational prayer service not be-cause we shy away from it but our hands fall short of it, so heinsinuates to us to defame the group of Muslims, to chargethem, to suggest that there are faults with that group, countingour deprivation of the group as our isolation from it and aban-donment of this life. We identify ourselves as being free of lovefor the self and for prominence. We, then, are in a worse shapethan both previous groups. We do not have the complete lifeenjoyed by the first group nor the incomplete one for thesecond group, nor do we have the Hereafter. Had we beenable, our seeking eminence and our love for distinction andwealth would have been greater than both those groups.

Satan is not satisfied with playing tricks on the group's im-am, nor is the fire of his desire quenched by turning the imaminto a fellow of hell, but he also enters the rows of those whofollow the imam as well to commit his mischief.

Since the first row is the best, and since the right side of arow is better than the left, it is his first target. Satan takes thehand of the poor worshipper and gets him out of his house des-pite the distance from the place where the group congregatesand seats him in the right side of the first row. He starts in-sinuating to him to inform people of this virtue which he at-tained. This poor man, too, without Satan tempting him, mani-fests the distinction of his own self with twinkling and cod-dling, thus his inner shirk shows itself, entering his deed intothe Sijjeen (the sinners' record).

Then Satan enters in the rest of rows, mobilizing then folksto hold on to the first row and to throw the poor worshipper,who is sitting in the first rank, with their arrows of defamationand curses whHe labeling themselves with integrity. It may benoticed that Satan takes the hand of a respected person, espe-cially if he is among the people of knowledge and distinction,to seat him in the other row so that this person may show

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people that despite his status among the public or in the worldof knowledge, whHe a man like him ought not emulate such animam, but "On account of my renunciation of this life and aban-donment of the selfs desire, I attended his congregational ser-vice. Despite all of this.. I even sat in the last row… " The likesof this individual are never seen in the first row at all! Satandoes not contend himself with only the imam and those whofollow him but sticks to the heard of one who prays individu-ally, taking his rein, pulling him out of the home or market,spreading a carpet for him with twinkling and coddling in acorner in the mosque, a man who does not see any imam as be-ing just, so he prolongs his bowing and prostrating as peoplelook on, repeating lengthy sacred verses. This person hides in-side himself his desire that people must understand the fol-loowing: "Due to the plentitude of my sanctity and precaution, Iabandon the group so I may not be afflicted by praying with animam who is not just." Besides being conceited and preten-tious, this man is also ignorant of the issues of the IslamicShari'a because the emulation authority of this person perhapsdoes not apply any criterion besides a good appearance so hemay emulate an imam. Thus do we place the rest of our mat-ters at the disposal of Satan whHe whenever this cursed onefinds an impure heart to which he resorts, he burns the appar-ent and the hidden deeds, rendering him among the fellows ofhell even through good deeds. Thus ends the wise admonish-ment of Imam al-Khomeini.

EXPLAINING HOW TO SCIENTIFICALLY ANDPRACTICALLY CURE THE HEART OF THE DISEASE OFPRETENSION

Some scholars of the hereafter have made statements in thisregard which I would like to cite here briefly with sonicexplanations :

You have come to know that pretension voids the good deedsand causes Allah to hold one in contempt, that it is one of themajor lethal sins; so, you have to get ready, be serious andstruggle when bearing the hardship of uprooting this tree fromthe heart. Reaching the ladders of sublime humanity is not

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easy without bearing hardships. Likewise, getting rid of ter-minal diseases cannot be achieved except by taking bittermedicines. This struggle, though tough in the beginning, failswithin the practical field: its hardship gradually dissipatescompletely.

( 67 ) Let it be known that the origin of pretension is love forprominence. If love for prominence is analyzed, it will berendered to three roots :

1. Love for praise: man loves to be praised and lauded; hefinds pleasure in hearing compliments.

2. Flight from ill reputation; man hates to be the source of illreputation; he is harmed and feels the pain when hearing thathis reputation is being chewed.

3. Greed for what people possess.

These three often cause pretension.

It may he observed how one does not desire praise, nor doeshe covet lauding, nor does he look at what others enjoy, but hecannot tolerate to be reprimanded and spoken ill of, so he un-dertakes a pretentious act. He is like a miser individual whoparticipates in a deed of righteousness when he sees others do-ing likewise, spending money for that cause. He finds himselfamong generous people who offer plenty of money by way ofcharity. He offers little of it by way of charity so he may not bedescribed as a stingy person. Or he may be like a young manamong youths who are worshipping, keeping themselves busy-with prayer and supplication, so he, too, prays and supplicatesso that he may not be spoken ill of and accused of being lazyand idle. And there are among the scholars those who do notcovet to be praised by people, but he cannot tolerate to beidentified as knowing very little. If he is asked about an issuewith which he is not familiar, he is swill to issue a verdictwithout knowledge rather than convincing himself of askingsomeone else who is familiar with it for fear he may be held as

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ignorant. Generally speaking, one can be patient with regard tothe pleasure of praise but cannot tolerate the pain of beingspoken ill of.

One who treats these three causes has to know that oneseeks and desires something due to thinking that it is good,useful and sweet to him, whether it is so now or it will be in thefuture. If he gets to know that it is pleasurable in the presenttime but is harmful in its outcome, it will be easy for him not todesire it. It is like one who knows that honey is delicious, so hecraves eating it, but if it becomes obvious to him that it con-tains poison, it will be easy for him to shy away from it. Thus isthe case with our subject. No matter how much a servant of Al-lah knows that pretension is harmful, that it causes him not toreform his harm, that it deprives him of imminent success andthe loss of a station in the hereafter, in the final outcome,bringing him punishment, contempt and infamy, whensomeone cries out as witnesses testify: "O debauchee, treach-erous, pretender, polytheist! Did you ever feel the shame whenyou traded the obedience to Allah for what the short lifeoffered'? Did you not watch people's hearts but did not watchout when you meet the Truth, Praise to Him? Did you not seekpopularity among the servants of Allah by doing what bringsabout wrath from Allah? Did you not decorate yourself withwhat makes you look bad in the eyes of Allah'? Did you notseek nearness to the servants of Allah by being distant fromHim? Did you not seek their praise by being ill spoken of by Al-lah? Did you not seek their pleasure by exposing yourself toAllah's anger'? Did anyone else stand in your eyes as beingthus less important than Allah?!" We seek refuge with Allahfrom such humiliation and exposure. "If only you could seewhen the guilty ones bend their heads down before theirLord… " (Qur'an, 32 : 12).

So, no matter how much a servant of Allah thinks about thishumiliation, comparing it with what he earns from His ser-vants, from making himself look good in their eyes, a statusamong them attained through the venue of pretension, onewhich he may not even get, comparing it with what he will faceof shame and infamy in the Hereafter… , he will then come to

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know that pretension is fire that has burnt his good deeds, ren-dering them into the record of the sinners. He may have lost ahigh status with Allah by earning this good deed which hespoiled with pretension, a status that places him in the com-pany of the prophets and the righteous. Surely pretension hastaken him out of the latter's company and send him to the rowof the accursed, add to this what he will be exposed to in thelife of this world of worries because of trying to please others.To please others is an unattainable objective; whenever youplease a group, another is displeased with you. What goal doeshe achieve when he earns their praise? What does he get whenhe drops in the eyes of Allah when raising himself in the eyesof His servants whHe such praise does not increase his susten-ance, nor does it prolong his lifespan, nor does it benefit himon the day when he realizes his poverty and want? So, 0 pre-tender who lets pretension covet his good deeds, be informedthat Allah, Praise to Him, is the One Who manipulates thehearts to either withhold or to give, and the beings have nochoice in this regard, nor is there anyone to sustain them be-sides Allah. One who sets his hopes on people will never befree of humiliation and disappointment. Even if he arrives athis goal, he will not be without indebtedness to others, withoutreceiving humiliation; so, how could you abandon what Allahhas in store with Him in exchange for a false hope, for a badwhim that may hit the mark or miss it: If it hits the mark, itspleasure does not compensate for the pain of its bad outcomeand humiliation?!

O pretender! Beware of fearing being spoken ill of! Whenpeople speak ill of you, it does not speed up your demise, nordoes it postpone it, nor does it render you among the residentsof hell if you are a resident of Paradise, nor does it make youcontemptible in the eyes of Allah if you are praised by Him, forall the servants are incapacitated: They cannot cause any harmto their own souls, nor benefit, nor life, nor death, nor resur-rection; so, perfection is not achieved through their praise, noris it diminished because of their criticism. A poet from BanuTamim once said, "Praise for me is good, whHe criticizing meis bad." whereupon the Messenger of Allah (a.s) said to him."You have lied! This applies to Allah: There is nothing good

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except in praising, nor is there anything bad more than savingsomething bad about Him. What good would you get whenpeople praise you whHe you arc held in contempt by Allah'?And what evil could touch you if people speak ill of YOU whHeAllah praises you'?"

Generally speaking, it is through thinking about these mat-ters that it is hoped that one's heart is directed towards Allah,so he gets rid of the humiliation of pretension and the crueltyof people's hearts. Lights from his sincerity reflect themselveson his heart whereby his chest is pleased. Through them willbeautiful revelations be opened up that increase his feeling ofhappiness for being in the company of Allah, of being unhappywhen he is in the company of people. He will then hold life incontempt whHe holding the Hereafter with high regards. Thestatus of the creation drops from his heart. The reason for pre-tension collapses, and the paths of sincerity will be facilitatedfor him …

WHEN SHOWING OFF ACTS OF WORSHIP ISPERMISSIBLE :

ADVICE BY IMAM KHOMEINI, MAY I BE HISSACRIFICE,FOR THOSE WHO WANTADMONISHMENTPRACTICAL TREATMENT FORPRETENSION

Contemplating upon and making plans for the issues whichwe have stated, though it has a strong effect in treating thisdisease, ought not suffice to scientifically treat this dangerousailment. Rather, the disease has also to be practically mon-itored. The practical medication is that one must accustomhimself to hiding his acts of adoration and closing the doorswhHe doing them just as the doors are closed when sins arecommitted, till his heart is convinced that Allah knows aboutand is familiar with his acts of adoration, and his soul does notstop him from seeking anyone to know about them save Allah.It has been narrated that a companion of Abu Hafs, the black-smith, spoke ill of this life and of its people, whereupon AbuHafs said to him. "You have manifested what you should have

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hidden. From this day on, do not keep us company." He did noteven permit showing this much because in speaking ill of thislife there is a sort of invitation to asceticism, and such an invit-ation often stems out of pretension; therefore, this studentmade him the object of his teacher's reprimanding, There is nocure for pretension like hiding. This is so even though it, in thebeginning, is very difficult to do, but if one perseveres about itby forcing himself, he will be aided by divine acts of kindness,and good success will be his; it will then be easier for him andhis burden will fall through support and help from theAlmighty.

Let me cite for you, kind reader, some of what has been nar-rated about the biographies of the Imams of Guidance who arethe doctors of the souls :

Al-Qummi, the narrator of traditions, may Allah be pleasedwith him, has narrated saying that Imam Ali son of Imam al-Hussain (peace be with them both) used to come out duringthe pitch dark of the night carrying a sack on his back in whichhe placed small bundles containing [gold] dinars and [silver]dirhams, and he might also have carried on his back food orfirewood. He would come to a house door and knock it thenhand over something to whoever comes out to open it, coveringhis face mean hHe so the poor recipient may not know who heis. When his corpse was placed down for the burial bath, hishack showed marks of swellings as large as camel humps. Heused to sustain a hundred families from among the poor ofMedina.

The son of Aisha is quoted as having said, "I heard the resid-ents of Medina saying, 'We have now lost the secret charitywhen Ali son of al-Hussain (a.s) died.' When he died and wasstripped for the funeral burial, they kept looking at the markson his back. They said that he used to carry flour sacks on hisback during the night in order to get them to reach the poor ofMedina stealthily, and he used to say that secret charities putout the wrath of the Lord."

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The Prophet (a.s) has said, "The greatest rewards for an actof worship are for one who hides them." 1

The Commander of the Faithful, peace be with him, has said,"One of the treasures of Paradise are: hiding a good deed, per-severing whHe facing calamities, and hiding hardships." 2

1 Safeenat al-Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 15.2 Ibid.

The Imams, peace be with them, are also cited as havingsaid, "The distinction of a good deed done in secrecy over onedone openly is that the first will be rewarded seventy times asmuch."

There are many other such narratives.

1 I say that the professor, may my soul be his sacrifice, hastransmitted this statement from his own great mentor Shah-Abadi (may Allah be pleased with him). But I saw it recorded inthe book titled Mirsad al-lbad by Sheikh Najm ad-Deen, and fa-vor belongs to the one who does a good deed first.

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Chapter 8Areas Where Showing Acts Of Worship isPermissible

There is no doubt in the requirement of sincerity in the act ofadoration and obedience to win the pleasure of Allah Almighty.This is taken for granted as one of the principles that have tobe taken into consideration in all conditions and circum-stances. No other rational or legislated incentive advances anact for the Divine One more than it. Sometimes what the nafsinsinuates is not even considered: A deed has a great benefit;therefore, it must be undertaken in order to show people. Apretentious deed gives the person who undertakes it nothing inreturn as the Holy Qur'an clearly states: ",., like those whospend their substance (just) to be seen by men but do not be-lieve in Allah or the Last Day. They are in parable like a hard,barren rock on which there is a little soil; a heavy rain falls onit, leaving it (just) a bare stone. They will be able to do nothingwith whatever they had earned" (Qur'an, 2:264).

Besides adhering to this accepted principle of the Sharma,we say that hiding a righteous deed, although it contains thebenefit of sincerity and the absence of pretension, yet, on theother hand, if it is done openly, it may also produce a benefitwhich is: making it desirable to people. Thus, people may emu-late the one who does it even if the deed may he threatenedwith pretension. The deed in both cases is raised in the HolyQur'an: "If you disclose (acts of) charity, even so it is well, butif you conceal them and make them reach those (who arcreally) in need, that is best for you: It will remove some of your(stains of) evil from you. And, Allah is well acquainted with allWhat you do" (Qur'an, 2:271). Disclosing them is of two types:

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One is disclosing the act itself publicly, and the other is talkingabout it after it has been secretly done.

As regarding the first, it in fact has preference over what canbe done secretly and what can be done publicly. If the act can-not be hidden, such as performing the pilgrimage, going for aholy war, attending the congregational prayer service, and thelike, it ought to be undertaken and not to let the insinuationhave room in it. Doing such deeds openly has nothing to dowith making a show or with pretension. Rather, the benefit oftaking the initiative in such deeds is to let people desire them,but the condition in them, as we stated, is that they must notbe done just to show off. They are to be done publicly.

Rather, perhaps the catalyst to hide such forms of worship ispretension as we pointed out before. It is this: Some souls cov-et to have a status in the hearts of people, so people may thinkwell of them. In such case, what is also known is this: One whoknows that they cannot be hidden, that they will eventually beknown, he tries to hide doing them. This is so because if peoplesee the action later on, and they will have to, they will thinkthat this person does what he does for the sake of Allah, praisebelongs to Him, and he does not like people to get to know hisdeeds. For example, if someone wants to perform the pilgrim-age, he knows that this action cannot be hidden from peoplebecause later he will have to be seen in Mecca and-Mina andperform the rounds and other rituals which will be seen by ahuge number of people. And he, once back from the pilgrim-age, will be visited by the brethren; so, this deed will immin-ently be known. But if people come to know about it, they willstate that he was hiding the preparations for it, so they willconsider him as being sincere in his action and will think wellof him. Such an individual is either a fool or a deceiving pre-tender who wants to hide his pretension from people.

But if the deed can and cannot be hidden, such as offeringcharity and prayers, it has to be manifested so long as there isno pretension in such manifesting, that there will be no harmin it such as showing the act of offering charity when harmingthe one receiving it. In such a case, it has to be hidden. But if it

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has no other harm, it is better to manifest it because it con-tains a public invitation to others to do likewise. This is provenby the tradition of the prophets and friends of Allah (a.s) whohas said the following about such a person: "… He will have thereward of doing it as well as that of anyone else who emulatesit." Tradition narrates that doing a deed secretly equals doingit publicly seventy times. There are manifold rewards for doinga good deed secretly, as many as seventy times, if it follows thecustom of doing it secretly. As long as the heart separates itselffrom the impurities of pretension, and sincerity is complete inboth cases, there is no doubt that anything good which is emu-lated by others is surely better. The concern is only about pre-tension being unveiled. When the impurity of pretension takesplace, emulation of others will not avail the doer, and he willperish by it; secrecy in such a case is better.

But one who manifests the deed must take two matters in-to consideration :

FIRST, he must manifest it when knowing or thinking it willbe emulated, such as a man doing something good for his fam-ily, or a mentor in his quarter, or a scholar in his country, re-gardless of the variation of individuals' stations. In otherwords, the emulation intention is sound in one who is apt to beemulated; otherwise, there is no benefit in manifesting it, andhe will miss out on the benefit of doing it secretly.

SECOND, one must monitor his heart; it may have hiddenpretension, so it invites him to manifest in the excuse of emula-tion. It, in reality, covets that undertaking the effort to win astation of emulation, and this is a hurdle that cannot be tran-scended except by the strong ones, the sincere. Others, theweaklings, must not deceive themselves, so they will perishand cause others to perish unknowingly. The similitude of theweakling in this dilemma is one who does not know how toswim well. He looks at a group of drowning persons, so hefeels pity for them and goes to them to cling to him so he maysave them from drowning. They cling to him, whereupon thisweakling perishes just as they perish. Thus do the feet of theservants of Allah and of the scholars slip away. Some of them

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hold on to the strong in their manifestation, but their heartsare not strong enough for sincerity, so their rewards are can-celled by pretension.

Notice that this is shrouded with ambiguity. One who wantsto know the treachery of his soul and whether his aim in mani-festing the good deed is to propagate it and advocate it, or ifhe has already fallen into Satan's trap, he must subject himselfto a test. The test is: He must ask himself if a man of truth, theone who works for Allah Almighty, tells him to hide the deed sopeople may emulate another scholar or worshipper fromamong his peers, and he will have the same reward of doingthe good deed publicly… , and if his heart inclines to be theone to be emulated, so he manifests the deed, let him knowthat the incentive of pretension is there rather than the desirefor divine rewards. It is the desire for people's goodness be-cause they aspired to achieve goodness through the action ofsome other worshipper who received his reward. He obtainedit despite his secrecy. So, what is wrong with his heart inclin-ing towards manifesting it other than the eyes of people noti-cing it, making a pretense for their sake? Let the servant of Al-lah beware of the soul's deception, for it often deceives, whenSatan ever lies in ambush. Love for a public status subduesone's heart. Seldom are manifested deeds safe from perils; so,lie must not substitute safety for anything else, the safety inhiding and in manifesting, perils that our likes cannot bear;therefore, we and all other weaklings ought to be cautious.

A scholar who was propagating the creed was seen in a vis-ion and was asked what was done to him. He said, "When I ar-rived at the barzakh [perhaps equivalent in Catholic theologyto the purgatory], I was called upon by my name and wasasked what I had done in my lifetime. I said, 'Lord! I wrotemany books to promote the faith.' I was asked, 'Whenpropagating the creed, did you intend that the faith was to bepromoted, or did you want your own self to be widely known?' Iwas too puzzled to answer." This is why the tradition states thefollowing: "Be sincere in doing your good deed, for the critic isquite observing."

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As regarding the second type, it is one talking about the deedand announcing it after having secretly done it. Like the first,this, too, is dangerous. It is even much more so: The tongue iseasy to articulate and move about narrating the tale with ease,and it may increase, decrease or exaggerate. The nafs enjoysmanifesting claims supportive of love for itself: so, one whoseheart is strong, sincere, in whose eyes people look small, it isequal with him whether they speak well or ill of him. If men-tioning it to those whom he hopes will emulate it, thus seekinggoodness because of it… , it is permissible to talk about thedeed. He will even be required to do so if his intention is pureand free of all perils because it is an invitation to others to do(similar) acts of righteousness, an invitation to do good whichis good by itself, especially if one's nature is molded on lovingto emulate others and being emulated, feeling the weight of itsburdens. Talking plays a strong role in bearing an impact onpeople's hearts, on their emulating the speaker. Perhaps a pre-tender manifesting an act of worship, when people do not knowthat it is pretension, has a great deal of good in it for people,yet it is evil against the pretender; so, how many sincerepeople have been the reason behind their sincerity is to emu-late one who in the eyes of Allah is a pretender! A narrated tra-dition states this: "Allah strengthens this religion through thesinning man, and through people who do not ponder on con-sequences"; it refers to that. Talking about a good deed, if oneis sincere without any pretension, is good, although there issomething quite interesting which we noticed about great menand which we would like to state here :

The men of divinity, those who rid themselves of desires,used to discourage others from narrating visions when attribut-ing them to their own selves. They used to say instead, "I knowsomeone who does such-and-such" or "Such-and-suchhappened the following to him by way of self-disclosure," forexample, because the objective is achieved through the actionor disclosure itself, and it is not needed to get to know who didit except if knowing so also plays a role in impressing, in emu-lating. It is only then that they used to identify themselves.

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ADVICE BY IMAM AL-KHOMEINI –MAY I BE HISSACRIFICE– FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO BEADMONISHED

So, my dear one, look deeply into your affairs and hold your-self to account in each of its deeds. Pull words out of it in everyincident, so you may get to know for what purpose it is willingto do good deeds and honorable acts, why it asks about issuesrelevant to the night prayer, why it recites supplications in thepresence of others… Does it intend that we should learn theanswers to our questions from it, or does it teach them for thesake of Allah Almighty? Or does it want to be known by peopleas one of those who perform tahajjud? Why does it want peopleto know it is traveling on pilgrimage to sacred places, or eventhe number of such travels? Why it does not want people toknow about its acts of charity which it offered in secrecy, so itresorts to other means in order that talk will pour into the sub-ject of charity, and it will then announce it offers people char-ity? If all of this is done for the sake of Allah Almighty, if youwant people to emulate you and you will be implied in thisstatement: "One who leads to a good deed is like one who doesit", manifesting your god deed will then be good. Thank Allah,Praise to Him, with your pure conscience and heart, but bealert lest you should be deceived by the nafs and by Satanwhen they both insinuate to you, and do not let them force youto do a pretentious deed in a sacred manner.

If manifesting is not purely for the sake of Allah, abandonmanifestation, for it is nothing but fame, and it comes from thefoul tree of pretension. Allah, to Whom all favors belong, doesnot accept such a deed, and He orders its doer to be placed inSijjeen. We seek refuge with Allah against the plots of the self,the nafs, for they are quite minute, and we all know in generalthat our deeds are not purely for the sake of Allah Almighty.Had we been sincere worshippers, why does Satan thus farewith our deeds although he had promised Allah, Praise to Him,that he would never intercept the path of the sincere worship-pers of Allah nor stretch his hand to their holy field'? Ourgreatest mentor, may his shade prolong, says, "Satan is thedog that stands at the gate of Allah. A dog does not bark at the

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friends of the house's owner, nor does he harm them. The dogstands guard at the door: he does not bother those with whomthe owner of the house feels comfortable. Instead, he prohibitsfrom entering those whom the owner of the house does not."

If you keep Satan busy about your own self, you must knowthat your deeds are not purely for the sake of Allah, not forachieving His pleasure. If you were sincerely seeking Aim, whydid the springs of wisdom now flow from your heart to yourtongue even though you have been for the past forty years do-ing deeds which you regard as bringing you closer to Allah?This is so although tradition says that if one is sincere to Allahfor forty mornings, the springs of wisdom will flow from hisheart to his tongue. So, be informed that our deeds are notpurely for the sake of Allah, nor are we even aware of it. Suchis the incurable ailment. Woe unto the folks of obedience andadoration, of Fridays and congregations, of knowledge andfaith, if they open their minds and see the Hereafter havingopened its pavilions! They will then see themselves as beingmuch worse than those who committed major sins, worse eventhan the apostates and those who associate partners with Al-lah! They will see the tablet of their deeds more black thanthat of those folks! Woe unto one who enters hell on account ofhis prayers and acts of obedience! Alas for those whose char-ity, zakat and prayers are portrayed in the most ugly form! So,poor soul, you are an apostate… As for the sinners, they arethe ones who believe in His Unity though they disobey Him,and Allah Almighty forgives the disobedient ones through Hisfavor if He wills. But He has said, "Allah does not forgive onewho associates partners with Him" (Qur'an, 4:48) if he dieswithout having repented. In the sacred traditions, according towhat I have heard, the Infallible Ones, peace be with them,have said. "A pretender associates partners with Allah; onewho shows off his religious prominence, his being an imam, hishaving studied and earned knowledge, and his fast and pray-ers… , generally in his good deeds, so he may earn a status inthe hearts of people, associates others with Allah," accordingto the reports transmitted about the ones who are infallible,peace of Allah be with them all. Forgiveness is not extended tohim, according to the sacred verse above. Would you have

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been among those who committed major sins, openly declaringyour being a debauchee, violating the pure sanctities'?! Butyou believed in His Unity, associating none with Allah!

So, my dear one, now think about your matter, cure yoursoul, and be informed that fame among people who are worthnothing is worth nothing. Had a sparrow eaten those hearts, itwould not have satisfied its hunger; they are worthless, equal-ing nothing. This weakling creature has no power; power isfound only in the divine holy presence, and the Holy One is theonly doer, the One Who causes things, whHe if the creatureswant to create flies, they will never be able to do so even ifeach supports the other in the endeavor. And if the flies robthem of something, they can never reclaim it. Power belongs toAllah Almighty; He is the One Who bears an impact on allthings in existence. So, exert yourself through all types of self-training and perseverance to write with the mind's pen on theheart's sheet that none can bear an impact on existence saveAllah; none is a doer in the abode of verification save Allah. En-able your heart through all means of practical unifying, whichis the first degree of tawhid, and make your heart a believer,'admitting this blessed word. Stamp your heart with the stampthat there is no god save Allah. Make it the portrait for thetawhid statement. Get it to reach the station of comfort. Attractits attention to the fact that people can neither do any harmnor any benefit to you but, rather, the One Who can benefit orharm you is Allah. Praise to Him. Remove from your mental vis-ion this blindness, for there is concern that you may be amongthose who will say, "Lord! Why did You resurrect me blind?",that you will be resurrected blind on the Day when the inner-most becomes manifest. The will of Allah supersedes all wills.If your heart becomes comfortable with this blessed statement,so you surrender it to this creed, there is hope your end will hegood, the roots of shirk, pretension, apostasy and hypocrisywill all be uprooted from your heart.

Be informed that this faith agrees with reason and tradition.There is no ambiguity in it about obligation, although it is pos-sible that one who is not knowledgeable about its principlesand precepts may charge it of forcing obligations. The hearing

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faculties of those who make such charges are not accustomedto some requirements. It is not linked to obligation essentially.It, then, is whereas obligation is shirk. Such is guidance, whenobligation is straying. It is not appropriate to explain what ob-ligation and what destiny is, but the topic is clear for those whoare apt to it, whHe others should not get themselves involvedin such pursuit. The One Who brought about the Shari'a pro-hibits entering into such pursuits [for those who are not quali-fied to do so]. Anyhow, plead to the Merciful Allah in all cir-cumstances, especially when you are in solitude. Plead to Himwith humility, inability, and submission to guide you to thenoon of tawhid, so He may enlighten your heart with the glitterof the unknown, with sincerity in your adoration, so you maybe freed from the w hole world and you will see everything in itas being trivial. Humbly seek the Holy One's help to make yourdeeds dedicated to I Inn, to guide you to the path of sincerity,of love. If you achieve a good result.

remember that you are a weak servant of Allah, the one whois stripped of the truth, who spent his lifetime following hiswhims and desires, whose heart, because of the impurity oftransgressions and heart diseases, no longer accepts any ad-vice, nor can any verse or tradition bear an impact on it, norcan an; evidence, proof or sign. If you do so, perhaps you willbe guided to a path that bring about salvation through supplic-ation, for Allah does not turn away a believer who goes to Hisdoor: He responds favorably to his supplication.

Having reminded you of these requirements, though you, too,knew them, for they are not new… , take your time to cultivateyour heart, to examine your deeds and actions, your motionand stillness. Look into your heart's hideouts, and hold yourheart to account as strictly as anyone among the folks of thisworld who holds his partner accountable. Abandon any deed inwhich there is the doubt of pretension and flattery, no matterhow very honest such a deed may be. If you see that Your pub-lic acts of adoration are not being performed sincerely, dothem privately, although they are recommended to be per-formed publicly, although rare is the case when pretensionagrees in the origin of an obligation but is often in its

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particularities, in what is commendable, in what is superfluous.Yet, at any rate, purify your heart from the contamination ofshirk through a completely serious effort, through a great dealof exertion, so you. God forbid, may not be removed from this[transient] world whHe being in this condition [to the Here-after], hence your status will be bad, and there will be no hopefor your salvation, and Allah. Praise to Him, will be angry withyou. This is confirmed by a sacred tradition in Wasa'il al-Shi'awhich cites Owl) al-lsnad which in turn traces it back to theCommander of the Faithful (a.s) who said, "The Messenger ofAllah (a.s) said. 'One who makes himself look good in the evesof people by doing what Allah loves, when being an opponentof Allah in secrecy by committing what Allah hates, will find Al-lah angry with him, holding him in contempt.'"

This tradition carries two possibilities. One of them is whenan individual beautifies his good deeds for people whenprivately committing ugly ones. The other is that he goes out tothe public and shows others what he has done when deepdown he is only a pretender. At any rate, this tradition containsa reference to pretension because doing what is obligatory andwhat is commendable, without meaning to make a show, doesnot incur the wrath of the Lord. Rather, it can be said that thesecond possibility is more likely because doing ugly deeds pub-licly is uglier than doing them privately. Anyhow, God forbidthat the King of Kings and the most Merciful of those whoshow mercy should be wrathful with man. I seek refuge withAllah from the wrath of the Clement One.

Here ends his sacred statement, may his shade he prolonged.

NOTICE :

As we have repeatedly stated, the traps of the nafs are nu-merous; Satan lies in ambush against man in order to rob himof his capital for the Hereafter through countless tricks. Butthe more familiar with these tricks one is, such familiarity maybenefit him in being saved from them. Let us add to the abovethe following :

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It may coincide that one spends the night with his adoringfriends who stand up for the tahajjud and spend the entire orsome of the night praying, and he in his customary case mayoffer tahajjud, but he used to rise close to dawn. So, if he seesthem, his energy is fired up in harmony with them, so much sothat he performs more than what he is used to, or he may prayalthough he was not accustomed to performing the night pray-er. Also, he may be among a crowd of fasting persons, so he isenergetic in performing the fast. Had it not been for them,such energy would not have been fired up. In cases such asthese, a question is put forth: "Is this pretension, so he has toabandon it?"

The answer is: Not at all. Rather, it can be explained in a waywherein some matters are distinguished from others. A believ-er, since he wishes to adore Allah, performs the night prayerand fasts during the daytime and may be hindered byobstacles, stopped by being busy, overcome by desires andpleasures, overcome by indifference, etc. If he accompaniesthose who adore, this indifference may abandon him, or theobstacles may be pushed away from his path, or he may notkeep himself busy doing anything, so he is energized for adora-tion. For example, he may be at home more capable of sleep-ing, enjoying a supple bed, or enjoying his wife, or talking withhis children and relatives, or he may be busy with his dailytransactions. These distract him from adoration during the firsthours of the night, so he has no energy to stand up for prayersat the end of the night, if he finds himself in someone else'shome, all these distractions will be removed from him.Moreover, he may be manipulated by an impetus for righteous-ness such as seeing his friends turning their attention fully to-wards Allah, turning away from the life of this world, adoringtheir Loved One, feeling the pleasure of addressing Him, so thecatalyst of goodness moves within him, prompting hint not tobe late from the field of worship. He will then compete withthem in their endeavor. It is in such doing that the competingones should compete with each other. There is no doubt thatthis has nothing to do with pretension. Or one may be robbedof sleep because of not being used to that house, or for anyother reason, so he takes advantage of his sleeplessness. But

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when he is at home, sleep overtakes him. Perhaps it may be ad-ded to the above his being always at home, and his soul doesnot permit him to always offer tahajjud except for a shortwhile. His condition will be a cause for such energy.

The same applies to fast. It may be hard for him to fast athome in the presence of delicious foods, and it is difficult forhim to keep himself away from them. But if these foods arc notpresent, the religious impetus to fast takes over. The availablepleasures are obstacles and catalysts that weaken one's reli-gious practice. If one is freed from them, the catalyst will bestrong. Satan in such situations insinuates to him through pre-tension and says. "Do not do it, for you will then be a pretend-er, for you used not to do it at home nor offer more than your[regular] prayers." He must not pay attention to such insinu-ation but undertake the deed so Satan and his nafs may losehope and not repeat their insinuation. And his desire and en-ergy may be for the sake of their observing him thus engaged,being concerned about what they may say and the possibility oftheir accusing him of being lazy, especially if they think that heis among those who offer tahajjud and adoration. His soul doesnot permit him to fall in their eyes. It wants to maintain itsstatus. It is then that Satan, contrarily to the first possibility,says to him. "Offer your prayers, for you are sincere, and youdo not pray for their sake but for that of Allah since you usedto pray every night. And if you do not pray for one night ormore, it is due to the abundance of hindrances. Your catalysttonight is the absence of the obstacles, not for the desire thatthey see you."

The diagnosis in both situations confuses those who do nothave a keen insight. If it is known that the catalyst is to bringthe hearts of the public closer, he may either abandon the ad-oration or not offer anything more than what he used to do, noteven one more prostration. If he comes to know that his energyis due to the removal of the obstacles and to compete with oth-ers for winning the Pleasure of Allah and His obedience, hemust take advantage of the opportunity and keep himself busyworshipping his Lord. The diagnosis in both situations is toughfor all those who do not have a keen insight. If one gets to

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know that the motive is to attract people's hearts, he musteither abandon the acts of adoration or not add anything toWhat he is accustomed to doing, not even a single prostration.If he gets to know that the catalyst is the removal of obstaclesand the competition for achieving the pleasure of and obedi-ence to Alin, let him seize the opportunity and keep himselfbusy worshipping his Lord. But if the matter is confusing tohim and he is unable to diagnose the matter, let him ask him-self this question: "If these men see him praying at a placewhere they do not see me, will I be generous with my prayerswhen they do not notice me?" If there is such generosity, lethim pray, for the motive is right. But if he sees himself as hav-ing hardship doing so whHe they did not see him, let him leaveit for its motive is pretension.

Likewise, he may be present during a supplication meeting.He looks at them and is overcome with tears out of fear of Al-lah. But had he heard the supplication when being by himself,he would not have wept, Seeing people weak softens the heart;so, this is not pretension. Rather, he may not be able to weep,so he feigns weeping. This feign weeping, too, may not be mo-tivated by pretension; instead, he fears for his heart lest itshould be hard when he sees people weeping and when hiseyes do not shed tears: therefore, he forces himself to pretendto he weeping. This is commendable. The mark of truth in thisis that he asks himself this: If he heard them praying whenthey could not see him, will he be concerned about his heartbeing hard, so he would feign weeping or not? If he does notfind tears when being unnoticed by them, his concern is notdue to his heart being hard, but it is out of his fear lest itshould be said that he is hard-hearted. In this case, he ought toabandon his pretense of weeping. And the cause of weepingmay he due to grief, but it is mixed with pretension during thetime when he weeps, so he raises his voice and becomes quitevocal in his wailing; this additional enthusiasm is pretension.He first wept for the sake of Allah but then Satan kept him do-ing so. Pretension may invite him to keep his tears on his facein order to show it.

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On the whole, one's nafs and Satan have countless tricks. Asa tradition states, "Pretension has seventy doors." keeping inmind that "seventy" is an indication of "many", when each doormay open up to many other doors. Another tradition says,"Seek refuge with Allah against the pretentious submission."The meaning of "pretentious submission" is that the organs,the limbs, not the heart, are submitting to Allah, although itcould have another meaning. In his supplication, the Master ofthose who Prostrate [Imam al-Sajjad (a.s)] states this: "Lord! Iseek refuge with You against my publicly looking good in theeyes of people when looking ugly in Your eyes privately, keep-ing people feeling pity for me whHe losing that with which Youare more familiar than I am, demonstrating to people my bestcondition whHe revealing to You my worst, seeking nearness topeople through my good deeds, fleeing away from You throughmy wrongdoing, hence I will be afflicted with Your contempt,and Your wrath will fall upon me! Do, Lord, shelter me from allof this, O Lord of the Worlds!

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Chapter 9A Seal Of Musk

As we conclude these sheets, we would like to cite a sacredtradition narrated by al-Kulaini (may Allah be pleased withhim) in his sacred book Al-Kafi from the Master of those whobelieve in the Unity of Allah, namely the Commander of theFaithful (a.s). Sheikh al-Saduq (may Allah be pleased with him)has narrated a similar one from Imam Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq(a.s). It is one of the pieces of advice by the Prophet (a.s) to Ali(a.s). The tradition is thus rendered through isnad to Abu Ab-dullah (a.s) who said that the Commander of the Faithful (a.s)had said, "There are three distinctive marks of a pretender: Heis energetic [in feigning acts of adoration] when he seespeople, is lazy when alone, and loves to be praised in all hisaffairs."

Imam al-Khomeini, may his shade prolong, has said thefollowing :

Since this disgusting sin may be hidden, not known by eventhe person with which lie is afflicted: He claims his deed is sin-cere, whereas in his innermost, he is among the pretenders.For this reason, they have stated a mark of identification soone may thereby identify his innermost, and he may thus startcuring himself of it :

" It thus deceives one through any means it can. The truth isthat this happiness and energy are not prompted except by aheart disease with which this poor man is afflicted, when heconsiders his nafs as being sound, not sick. There is no hopethat he will be healed. This wretch, in his innermost, in his

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pith, in his conscience, loves to show people his deed when lieis being unaware of it. Rather, he is demonstrating disobedi-ence in the form of adoration, turning pretension into propaga-tion for the creed. Although it is commendable that one per-forms what is recommended when he is by himself, why doesthe nafs always love to undertake it in public? It weeps for fearof Allah in public congregations with energy and gladly, butwhen alone, no matter how it tries, it cannot squeeze a dropout of the eye. Why does fear of Allah take place only in con-gregations? One weeps and supplicates in the presence ofthousands of people during the nights of Qadr, offering a hun-dred prostrations during his prayers, reciting the GreaterJawshan supplication and the smaller one as well as chaptersfrom the Holy Qur'an without feeling lazy, nor is he tired doingall of that. But if he prays ten rek'at in his solitude, he feels aback pain, and he is in such a bad shape! If the deeds thatcome up of an individual are prompted solely to win the Pleas-ure of Allah Almighty, or to attain His mercy, or out of fear ofHis fire, or out of eagerness for Paradise, why should this indi-vidual love people to praise him for them? Why should he listento their praise, directing his heart towards them so he mayhear someone lauding him or saying that so-and-so is a man ofadoration, a worshipper who is keen to be in the forefrontwhen the time of prayers comes, is mindful of what is com-mendable?! Or so he does so in order that he may hearsomeone saying that so-and-so, who performed the pilgrimage,is a trustworthy man, a man who can be reliable upon with re-gard to his transactions, etc. If one looks forward to AllahAlmighty with anticipation, why should he care for all this pro-fuse love [for public praise]? If [love for] paradise and [fear of]the lire are your catalyst to undertake this deed, why do youcare for such love? So, be mindful lest this love should comefrom the branches of that bad tree, pretension, and try yourbest to repair what you can repair, and rid yourself of suchlove.

There is no harm in attracting attention to something in thisregard which is: For each of these psychological conditionsthat arc more than the good and the bad aspects, there aremany levels, To be characterized by one of the good attributes

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when being dissociated from a level of bad attributes may bethe specialty of those who know Allah, who are friends of Allah.As regarding the rest of people, they are as they are in theirlevels. To be characterized by what is a shortcoming in thesight of the men of knowledge, of the friends of Allah, does notseem to them [to these faulty persons] to be a shortcoming.Rather, it may be perfection of a sort. Also, the merits of theseindividuals seem to be bad to the men of knowledge, to thefriends of Allah. Pretension, which we are discussing, is actu-ally one of these attributes. Salvation from all its levels is theprivilege of the friends of Allah. Others do not share them in it.

The general public of people being characterized by one ofits levels is not a shortcoming based on the station in whichthey are. It does not harm their conviction or sincerity. For ex-ample, the hearts of the general public, according to theirnature, incline towards showing people what is good aboutthem, even if they do not do so with the intention of showingoff. But their souls by nature are inclined to such love, and thisdoes not necessitate rendering the deed as void or describingthem as unbelievers, hypocrites and polytheist, although this issurely a shortcoming in the sight of the friends of Allah, ashirk, a hypocrisy in the view of a friend of Allah, or one whoknows Allah. To be totally free of absolute shirk, to be re-deemed of all its levels, is the first station of the friends of Al-lah who have other stations not suitable for elaboration here.The Infallible Ones, peace be with them, have said that theiradoration is one of freemen's, that is, solely out of love for Al-lah Almighty, neither coveting Paradise nor fearing hell. It isone of their ordinary stations and the first degree of their mas-tership. There are for them, peace be with them, in their adora-tion conditions which are beyond our comprehension.

Based on what we have stated, a combination can be made ofthe tradition cited above transmitted from the Messenger of Al-lah (a.s) and the Commander of the Faithful (peace be withboth of them), and the other tradition by Zurarah who citesAbu Ja'fer, peace be with him, as narrated by Muhammad ibnYacoub who traces it back to Abu Ja'fer, peace be with him,saying, "I asked him about a man who does something good.

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Another sees it and is pleased with it. He said that there is noharm in it, that everyone loves to look in the eyes of people asa man of goodness unless he does something solely for thispurpose." If one loves to be praised, he is regarded in one ofthe traditions as manifesting pretension, when in the other tra-dition the harm is removed when someone is pleased withsomething good coming out of his deed. The common denomin-ator in the combination is the difference of opinion accordingto the status of the individuals. There is another way to look atthe combination of both traditions which we have overlooked.

Here the speech of our professor [al-Khomeini], may Allahprolong his shade, ends.

I say, perhaps the other way in combining both traditions isthat the first tradition examines the love for praise at the timewhen a good deed is being done, and it is a mark of pretension.The other tradition examines love for praise after a deed isalready done.

Or the love for praise in the first tradition is made as a markof pretension, arranged by the other two marks, as is linguist-ically clear, especially since paying attention to the first marks(energy when people see a doer of good deed and lazinesswhen he is by himself), and they must be observed together orseparately so they may comprise a mark for pretension; other-wise, if one of them is supposed, say the energy when peoplesee him and also when alone or laziness in both cases, it is def-initely not a mark of pretension. If it is added to love for praise,it will definitely be a mark for pretension, a sure revelation ofit, and this is contrary to praise alone, for it is not a mark ofpretension as the second tradition says.

Or we may say that the first tradition means the pretender,because of being afflicted with the disease of pretension, lovespeople to praise him in all his affairs, as the tradition states. Asfor the second tradition, it is similar to partial obligation: itpoints out to the appearance of goodness from one whenpleased: there is no harm so long as he did not do the deed forsolely this purpose. Surely Allah is the One Who knows best,

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and the last of our supplication is: Praise to Allah, the Lord ofthe Worlds.

These sheets have been written down by the indigent, theone needs the mercy of his Lord, Sayyid Ahmed al-Fahri, on thetwentieth day of the blessed Month of Ramadan in the city ofDamascus in the year 1404 with the one who undertook the mi-gration may be prayers and peace.

[This concludes the dissertation on pretension. 1

CONCEITA DISSERTATION ABOUT CONCEITCONCEIT ACCORDING TO TRADITIONSMEANING OF CONCEITAN EXPLANATION BY IMAM KHOMEINIDEGREES & LEVELS OF CONCEITIn the Name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most MercifulA DISSERTATION ABOUT CONCEIT

CONCEIT

Before we start to explain the meaning of conceit, the dam-age it causes, its characteristics and how this contemptiblecase is treated, we ought to pave the way for all of that withsome citations from the Qur'an and the traditions of Ahl al-Bayt, peace be with them all.

Suffices to identify the significance of conceit and the calam-ity this contemptible case brings about, in the view of theQur'an, to read verses 103 – 105 of the blessed Chapter "TheCave", Al-Kahf, where Allah, Praised is He, says, "Say: 'Shallwe tell you of those who lose the most with regard to theirdeeds, those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, whenthey thought that they were acquiring good by their deeds?They are those who deny their Lord's Signs and the fact thatthey shall meet Him (in the hereafter): Their deeds will be invain, nor shall We grant them any weight on the Day of Judg-ment" ( Qur'an, 18:103-105 ).

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We derive from these sacred verses many interesting pointson which we are not going to elaborate, but we would only liketo point out that conceit, according to these verses, becomes acause for many good endeavors in this life to go to waste: itleads to disbelieving the Signs of Allah and in meeting Him, acause for voiding the good deeds; so, conceit spares no gooddeed whereby salvation is anticipated. For these reasons, thegood deeds of the conceited ones will have no weight on theJudgment Day. This suffices as the destruction caused by thiscase that brings loss.

As regarding conceit according to traditions, the revered Al-Kafi traces to Ali ibn Suwaid asking, the father of Imam al-Has-san (a.s) about conceit which ruins good deeds. The Imam (a.s)said, "Conceit is of many levels, One of them is that the baddeed of a servant of Allah is decorated for him, so he sees it asgood and he likes it, thinking he is doing something good.Another level is when a servant believes in his Lord, so hethinks he has clone Allah Almighty a favor whHe Allah is theone who bestowed His favor on him." The Imam (a.s) is alsocited as having said, "One who is absorbed by conceit per-ishes." Also he is cited as having said, "Someone sins then re-grets. He does a good deed whereby he is pleased, so he re-laxes his condition. It would have been better for him to main-tain his first status rather than enter into that." The Imam (a.s)is also quoted as having said, "A scholar came to a worshipperand asked him about his prayers. The worshipper said, 'Shouldsomeone like me be asked about his prayers while 1 have beenworshipping Allah since such-and-such?!' asked him about histears. The man said to him. 'I cry till my tears pout out.' Thescholar then said to him. 'Your laughter when being afraid isbetter than your weeping when you are thus bragging about it.Nothing of the good deed of a braggart is ever raised.'"

The Messenger of Allah (a.s) has said, "Three things are leth-al: an obeyed miserliness, an illicit desire that iss followed, andone who is proud of himself" He (a.s) has also said, "I lad younot sinned, I would have feared for you what is greater thansinning: conceit, conceit."

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Ibn Mas'ud has said, "Perishing is brought about in two situ-ations: despondency and conceit. It is when one loses hope forthe mercy of Allah, desponds from salvation, loses hope fromself-reform."

Ibn Mas'ud has combined both of these because one's happi-ness is pawned by his endeavor and serious effort in seeking it.The Almighty has said, ".., man can have nothing but what hestrives for" (Qur'an, 53:39). Unless one energetically seeks hisobjective and original goal, he will never attain the sought hap-piness. Each of these two characteristics, despondency andconceit, plays a role in slowing down an effort towards one'sgoal, prohibiting one from seeking it as he ought to. As regard-ing despondency, the morale of the despondent person is notprepared to pursue his objective. One who desponds from re-forming himself, so lie is not energetic in order to save it, hemay do something that is faster in causing his perdition. Onewho desponds from reforming himself does not mind commit-ting any wrongdoing; therefore, despondency from the broadmercy of Allah is considered as one of the greatest sins. As forconceit, since the conceited person thinks he achieved his hap-piness and won his objective and goal, he, too, stops his goodendeavor and pursuit.

In other words, man does not seek something which isalready available rather than something which is impossible.Happiness in the eyes of the conceited person is alreadypresent, and in the eyes of the despondent person it is im-possible. In this regard, we contend ourselves with this much.

MEANING OF CONCEIT

Conceit means one sees and admires himself and his actions.It is a psychological condition which we sometimes find inourselves. The meanings given to it, that have been mentionedin language books, mostly explain its requirements or con-sequences such as elation, arrogance, and denying what othershold against you as objectionable, according to Al-Munjid.

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These meanings, as you can see, are among the requirementsof the state which we mentioned in one's nafs. As regardingthe idiomatic meaning for conceit, according to the definitionof the scholars of mannerism, it is, according to some scholarsof the hereafter, magnifying the blessing, taking it for grantedwhHe forgetting to attribute it to the One Who bestowed it.

Allama al-Majlisi, may Allah sanctify his soul, has said thatconceit is magnifying the good deed, seeing it as plentiful. Asregarding feeling pleased with it when feeling humble to themost Exalted One and thanking Him for enabling its doing, it isgood, commendable.

I say that what this great traditionist has said, that is, con-ceited is "one who sees himself as not having fallen short of un-dertaking the deed", a reference to a particular conduct towhich narrations have referred. Among such traditions is onerecorded in the sacred book A1-Kafi from the father of al-Has-san, namely Imam Mousa son of Ja'fer, peace be with both ofthem, who said once to one of his sons, "O son! You have tomaintain your endeavor. Do not ever think of yourself as hav-ing transcended the stage of falling short of perfecting yourworship of Allah, the most Exalted, the most Great, and arcobeying Him, for Allah is never adored as He should be." it isalso as the Messenger of Allah (a.s.) had said, being the best ofall descendants of Adam, the one who is the best of them in hisknowledge of Allah, and the one who adored Him the best, ad-dressing Him thus: "We did not know You as You ought to heknown, nor did we adore You as You should rightly be adored."Al-Kafi, too, cites Jabir [son of Abdullah al-Ansari saying thatthe hither of Imam Ja'fer (a.s) said to him, "O Jabir! May Allahnever get you out of the feeling of being neglectful and of be-ing derelict in worshipping Allah."

The great traditionist, 'allama al-Majlisi, has quoted theknowledgeable critic, the great scholar, and the most reveredmentor Baha ad-Deen al-'Amili, may Allah be pleased with him,saying, "There is no doubt that if one does a righteous decd,such as fasting on certain days, spending the night praying andthe like, feels happy about it. If he feels like that on account of

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these deeds being a boon from Ain, a blessing from Him, themost Exalted One, upon him, when being afraid of their disap-pearance, pleading to Allah to grant him more of them… , suchfeeling is not conceit. But if he thinks that they represent hisown characteristic, that they are done by his person, being at-tributed to him, thinking much of them and feeling reliant uponthem, seeing himself as being outside the limit of dereliction,having the attitude as if he is doing Allah. Praise to Him, a fa-vor because of them, such is conceit."

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Chapter 10Explanation By Imam AL-Khomeini

Imam al-Khomeini, may his shade prolong, has a viewpointabout this definition. He says the following :

"The explanation of conceit according to what is mentionedby the greatest mentor Bah ad-Deen is correct, but the deedhas to be examined more generally than just inwardly and out-wardly, more generally than a good or an ugly deed, becauseconceit, just as it is ascertained by the acts of the senses, italso is compared with the side actions, running them. Just asthe person who has a commendable merit feels conceited, ad-miring his merit, so is the case with the one who has the badcharacteristic, too, for he may also feel proud of himself or ofhis characteristic. It is as has been indicated in the sacred tra-dition which we mentioned as narrated by Ali son of Suwaidquoting the father of al-Hassan (a.s) in which the Imam (a.s)says, "… And among them is that they had deed of a servant ofAllah is decorated for him, so he sees it good, and he feelsproud of it, thinking that he is doing well. And among them isthat a servant believes in his Lord, so he thinks he is thus do-ing Allah a favor. The reason why he mentioned these two isbecause they are hidden from the sight of most people, and sothat people may also get to know that the good feeling and ela-tion, which the Baha'i mentor excludes from conceit and re-gards as good, is according to the type of one's attitude."

The gist of the viewpoint of imam al-Khomeini with regard tothe statement of the mentor indicates three matters:

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FIRST : The mentor, may Allah have mercy on him, has spe-cifically talked about conceit when someone feels conceitedabout his physical deeds, such as -fasting during the time andpraying during the night, and the like, and apparently his ob-jective from doing so is not the same as he had mentioned ofthe deeds of adoration, benevolence, etc., not looking at the in-ward deeds. Conceit, as we have already stated, is found in theinnate, the inwardly, deeds such as one feeling proud of his be-lief, which is an action relevant to the heart, an internal sub-mission, feeling proud of his belief in the Messenger as thoughhe feels he is doing Allah and His Messenger a favor, as statedin the tradition quoted above. Thus, conceit is found in the in-ward characteristics and faculties such as conceit about know-ledge, courage, generosity, etc.

SECOND : The mentor, may he be sanctified, specificallydiscussed conceit about side deeds, with regard to the gooddeeds, too, saying, "There is no doubt that one who does gooddeeds feels elated." The case is that conceit is not confined tothe good deeds but it may also take place in the bad ones.Quite many unbelievers and hypocrites feel proud of their un-belief and hypocrisy. Those whose faculties are mean aredragged into feeling proud of their bad characteristics as we,God willing, will mention. We have pointed out to all of this inthe tradition cited above, which is the statement of the imam inwhich he says that a servant's bad deed is decorated for him,so he sees it as being good, and he likes it. Such is the result ofSatan, the evil one, confusing him, and such is the bad nafsdecorated for man.

THIRD : According to the imam's viewpoint with regard tothe statement of the mentor, that is, the feeling of happinessand elation that happens to man upon doing some righteousdeed, if it is according to what the mentor says, that is, with re-gard to such deeds being a boon from Allah … , etc., such ela-tion is not conceit. This pursuit, with regard to most people, isaccording to its kind and is not applicable to all persons. Therearc individuals among people who arc among the sincere wor-shippers of Allah. They have gotten rid of the nafs and of its de-sires. Their eyes are too blinded to see their nafs in its entirety,

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so they do not see any deed for themselves except that theyfeel happy and pleased about it. They see their souls beingowned by their real Owner; they have neither power nor mightof their own. Their will is fused into the will of Allah. They aredescribed by this verse: "Allah sets forth the parable (of twomen: one) a slave in the service of another; he has no power ofany sort, whHe (the other) a man on whom We have bestowedgoodly favors from Us, and he spends (freely) of it, privatelyand publicly: Are the two equal? (By no means:) praise be to Al-lah. But most of them do not understand" (Qur'an, 16:75). Theyare the testimony to this verse of the Almighty: "They are (but)servants [whose status is] raised to honor [and distinction!"(Qur'an, 21:26). These are the sincere ones who, when beingheedless about Allah and cast a look at their good deed, theyfind happiness and pleasure, whereupon they seek forgivenessof Allah for such a sentiment despite their lofty status with Al-lah, for the good deeds of the kind ones are the bad deeds ofthose close to Him.

DEGREES AND LEVELS OF CONCEIT

As we have quoted from the imam, may his blessings endure,about pretension, that is, it has three levels, and each level hastwo degrees the explanation of which has already been indic-ated, so is the case with conceit: it, too, has the same levelsand degrees,

The first level is conceit about beliefs. The second is conceitabout the faculties. The third level is conceit about deeds. Thefirst level has two degrees: the first is conceit about belief andtrue branches of knowledge. The second degree, in contrast, isconceit about disbelief, apostasy and inward beliefs. Thesecond level, too, has two degrees: The first is conceit aboutgood faculties and commendable merits. The second, in con-trast, is conceit about bad manners and ugly faculties. Thethird level, too, has two degrees: conceit about the good deeds.Contrasting the second degree is conceit about ugly deeds andwrongdoings.

LEVELS OF CONCEIT

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CONSEQUENCES OF CONCEITLEVELS OF CONCEIT

A scholar of the hereafter has divided conceit into two levels.The conclusion of what he says, with some explanation fromour part, is this: Conceit exists in man for a merit the owner ofwhich sees it as a mark of perfection, there is no doubt aboutit, and everyone considers himself, in his innermost, as beingcomplete, whether in his knowledge, or wealth, or all otherforms of perfection. He, hence, goes through conditions, in-cluding fear of losing these perfections, fear of being robbed ofthat perfection as a whole or in part, or a shortcoming happensto him which spoils his purity. This condition is not describedas making anyone wonder.

Also among them is that he does not fear its disappearance,but he feels elated about this perfection, so much so that hesees it as a blessing from Allah Almighty; he renders it to theAlmighty, not to himself; such elation and pleasure about per-fection is not conceit, either.

But man has a third status which is labeled as conceit. He isnot concerned about the disappearance of perfection but feelselated about its existence, and he feels glad about it. At thesame time, his heart becomes attached to it, and he is happybecause it is perfection and eminence, not due to its attributionto the Truthful One, the Almighty, not one of His boons, and hehas neither independence nor a principle for this perfection. Ifhe believes in his heart that this perfection is a blessing fromAllah, that the Almighty can take it away from him whenever Ile wishes, such a feeling leaves no room for conceit to find itsway to his heart. If we suppose there is conceit in him, such abelief, the remembrance that Allah, the most Praised One, cantake it away from him whenever He wills, removes conceitfrom his heart. Based on all of this, conceit is that one lookswith magnifying glasses at a blessing and perfection for hisown self, and his heart becomes attached to it, forgetting to at-tribute it to the True Giver of Boons. Such a condition is thefirst level of conceit. If he rises from this condition and sees itin his heart as though Allah Almighty owes him a favor, that he

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has a status and nearness to [lint, he expects Allah Almighty togrant him eminence in the life of this world as a reward for his[righteous] deed. And if something wrong happens to him, hegoes further in his attitude to the extent that if this wrong hap-pens to a debauchee, it would not have been far-fetched in hisview in this goal; this status is called flirtation and coquetry.

For example, it may coincide that he gives someonesomething. He magnifies this giving in his view and considershimself as having done that someone a favor. This person ad-mires his giving. If he employs the same person to whom hegave something, and if he rests his hopes on getting somethingout of him, thinking it far-fetched that this person would dis-agree with him, this condition is called flirtation and coquetry,and it is a higher level than conceit. In every case of flirtation,conceit exists, and not the contrary. Conceit can exist throughthe sentiment of flirtation because the balance and the cri-terion in conceit is over-estimating a deed and forgetting theblessing without expecting a reward. As regarding flirtation, itaccompanies the expectation for the greatest reward. If one ex-pects Allah, Praise to Him, to definitely respond to his supplica-tion, having no inner thoughts of being rejected, he will he sur-prised if his supplication is not honored. He does not ask him-self why his supplication is not honored. Or he is not surprisedwhen the supplication of a debauchee is not honored, but he issurprised when his own supplication is not honored! This poorperson, in addition to his conceit, is flirting with AllahAlmighty, too. 1

Be informed that conceit, in each of the previous levels, has[sub] levels some of which are obvious: One goes in its direc-tion without being aware of it, without noticing, And some ofthem are minute, quite thin to the extent that unless one fullyexamines, he will not know accurately nor realize properly.Also, some of its levels are more intense and causing more per-dition than others.

There is a reference to this in the "Opening Supplication"(du'a al-iftitah. It states the following: "… so I became supplic-ating to You feeling secure, asking You, feeling close to You,

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neither afraid nor being apprehensive, flirting with that forwhich I seek You; so, if Your response is slow, I remonstratewith You due to my own ignorance … , etc."

FIRST LEVEL :

It is the highest of all, and it does the most harm. It is a con-dition found in man because of intense conceit, so intense it isthat he considers himself as doing a favor to the One Who be-stows His favors on him, the King of Kings, on account of hisbelief or other merits. He claims his merits have created,through his conviction, an expansion in the domain of theTruthful One, the most Exalted One, creating dissemination ofHis creed, that he, because of promoting the Shari'a, or due tohis instruction and guidance, or his enjoining what is right andforbidding what is wrong, or by his safeguarding His limits, orbecause of his prayer niche and pulpit… , he created in Allah'screed freshness. Or it is because of his attendance at the con-gregations of the Muslims, or his holding mourning congrega-tions for Abu Abdullah, Imam al-Hussain (a.s), that the creedhas enjoyed promotion which he feels he thus has done theAlmighty, His Honored Messenger and the Master of Martyrs afavor, even if such a thought did not surface, he thinks it in hismind, inwardly. From this door comes the attitude of someonedoing a favor to the servants of Allah in the religious matterssuch as one offering obligatory and commendable charities, hisassistance to the weak and the poor. So he feels he has donethem a favor, and this attitude may be hidden even from hisown self, too. (An explanation of people having done no favorto the Almighty, but that Allah does them favors, has alreadybeen made before in the discussion of pretension).

SECOND LEVEL :

It is when one flirts with Allah Almighty through the intensityof conceit in his heart. This flirtation is different from the feel-ing of having obliged, although some scholars do not differenti-ate between them. A person filling this category claims he isloved by Allah Almighty, considering such love to be extendedto those who are close to him and to those who preceded him.

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When one of the friends of Allah is mentioned by name, orwhen a talk goes on about those who are loved by Allah or wholove Allah or the one on such a path who attracts others toHim, one of them feels in his heart that he is one of them. Pre-tension may humble itself and appears to be different fromthat. Or, in order one may confirm such a station for himself,one may deny it in a way when the denial is akin to confirming!If Allah afflicts him with an affliction, he will then beat thedrum of "only friends [of Allah] are afflicted".

Those who claim that they offer guidance to others, the menof knowledge, the Sufis, the men who study behavior and math-ematics, are all closer to this danger than all others.

THIRD LEVEL :

This is the level of one who sees himself as demanding hisright from Allah on account of his conviction, or merits, ordeeds which he sees as worthy of rewards, obligating AlmAlmighty to strengthen him in the life of this world and get himto reach the stations in the Hereafter. He believes he is a sin-cere believer. When the believers are reminded of the un-known, he sticks his head out among others, imagining he isworthy of rewards even if Allah, Praise to Him, treats him withjustice. Rather, he increases the ugliness of his rudeness, so hespeaks out this false statement. If he is afflicted and somethingwrong happens to him, he objects to Allah in his heart, wonder-ing about the actions of the Just Almighty, how He afflicts thepure believer and sustains the hypocritical sinner. He, hence,is angry at heart with the Truthful One, the Almighty, becauseof his own estimates. He feigns acceptance, demonstrating [inreality] his anger with the One Who bestows the blessings onhim, pretending to others that he accepts destiny. If he hearsthat Allah, Praise to Him, afflicts the believers in the life of thisworld, he solaces his heart with such a thought, not knowingthat the hypocrites who arc tested in this life are numerous,and not everyone who is afflicted is a believer.

FOURTH LEVEL :

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Here, one sees himself as being distinguished from all oth-ers, better than all other believers on account of the basis ofhis belief, by the good characteristics, than those who do nothave them, by doing what is obligatory and abandoning what isprohibitive compared to the contrary. He sees himself as beingmore perfect than all other people, that he performs what iscommendable, regularly attending Friday services, the con-gregational prayer services and all other rituals, abandoningall contemptible acts. He attributes to himself a distinction, de-pending on his own self, belief and deeds, looking at all otherbeings as nothing, as incomplete, looking at people askance.He inwardly or outwardly taunts the servants of Allah, keepingaway everyone from the gate of the mercy of Allah throughsome means, keeping His mercy just to himself and to groupssimilar to him. The individual who occupies this station reachesa degree where he discusses the good deeds of people, no mat-ter how high they may be, belittling their deeds in his heart orin some other way, raising the standard of his own deeds abovesuch belittling, purifying them from such discussion.

The good deeds of people he sees as nothing. If he does thesame deeds, he magnifies them. He realizes the tiny faults inpeople very well when not realizing his own fault, overlookingit.

These are the marks of conceit even when one is indifferentto them. Conceit has other degrees which I have not stated,and I am certainly unaware of some of them.

Here, his speech, may Allah prolong his shade, ends.

COMMENT :

What the imam, may his shade prolong, has said about con-ceit according to the beliefs, the faculties and the deeds, is notconfined to the good beliefs. Rather, conceit is found in falsebeliefs, in ugly faculties, in wrong deeds, too. Perhaps this isfar-fetched according to some, for how can one become con-ceited about his disbelief, hypocrisy, bad faculties and dis-obedience of Allah, Praise to Him?! But let him be informed

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that Allah, the Praised One, created the human nature as it is:containing the status of being accustomed to something. If itundertakes a deed more than once, whether this deed belongsto those of the live senses or of the innermost, it likes it and be-comes used to it. This status in the soul is one of Allah's majorpaths and important factors for uplifting and heading towardsperfection. This is so because a good deed, likewise, in earningthe stations and virtuous beliefs, may seem to be a problem forthe individuals in the beginning, and they require tolerance forhardships and exercises. But if they are followed by a period oftime during which they become accustomed to them, the hard-ship and difficulty will be removed from it. (Doing somethinggood is a habit, and also a habit is doing evil things). From thestandpoint of this status found in the soul, some great men whodelved into the meaning of verses referring to torment and toeternity in the fire determined by Allah, Praise to Him, to theunbelievers and polytheists, is derived from some principles ofknowledge and philosophy which we arc not here to discuss.Those who remain tortured for some time reach a state whenthey feel accustomed to their environment: they become usedto it: they are not bored by it. Perhaps this sacred verse is use-ful to cite in this regard: "As often as their skins are roastedthrough, We shall change them for fresh skins (so) that theymay taste the penalty" (Qur'an, 4:56). This verse supports ourargument about the people of the fire particularly if we pay at-tention to the phrase "… (so) that they may taste the penalty…". Anyway, we have no knowledge of the facts relevant to theconditions of the world of the hereafter and its horrors, and wemust not measure the conditions of that world according to ourown: this one. But it is taken for granted that the soul has theability to get used to something in this world, that it feels com-fortable with any action which it does repeatedly and which theheart likes and gets attached to. If one loves something, thislove becomes a barrier between him and seeing the faults ofthat thing just as this verse of poetry says:

The pleased eyes are too tired to reach a fault. But the eve ofwrath reveals all the faults.

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Based on what we have stated when we quoted the may Allahprolong his shade, that is, the unbelievers, the hypocrites, theunbelievers, those whose manners are contemptible, thosewhose desires are low, and those who commit transgressionsand sins, may all be dragged to admire their disbelief, sins, badmanners and ugly deeds. They may even feel good about them,seeing themselves as having free spirits, revolting against tra-dition, not believing in whims. They think that they have themanliness and courage, that belief in the Almighty is a whim,that adherence to the legislated religious laws is an indicationof shortsightedness, that the good manners and virtuouswishes stem from weak souls, considering adherence to obliga-tions mid forms of worship as signs of weak comprehensionand a shortcoming of feelings. They see themselves from astandpoint as bearing free spirits that are not complicated bywhims, not caring about the religious laws but worthy of,praise and lauding. All of this is due to the low characteristicssetting deep roots within them, and they have become comfort-able with them. They [their faults and sins] look good in theirown eyes, so they consider them as signs of perfection as re-ferred to in a sacred tradition in Ai-Kafi from Ali ibn SuwaidFrom Abul-Hassan, peace be with him, who has said, "Conceitcomes in degrees. Among them is the servant of the Almightysees his bad deed decorated, so he sees it as good, and he ad-mires it, thinking he is doing something good. The Almightyhas said, 'Say: Shall we tell you of those who lose most in re-spect of their deeds, those whose efforts have been wasted inthis life, while they think that they are acquiring good by theirdeeds? They are those who deny their Lord's Signs and the factof their having to meet Him (in the hereafter): Their deeds willbe in vain, nor shall We grant them any weight on the Day ofudgment (Qur'an, 18:103-5 ).

The imam, may his shade endure, says the following aboutthose who admire their false beliefs, low desires and uglydeeds: "This group of people includes those who considerthemselves as men of knowledge when they are ignorant andthe most poor and wretch of all. Doctors of psychology are un-able to treat them. Advising and admonishing them have no ef-fect on them; rather, the effect may reflect contrarily on them.

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These do not listen to proofs; they close their ears and visionsagainst the guidance of the prophets, the evidence of the wise,the admonishment of the scholars. One, therefore, has to seekrefuge with Allah, Praise to Him, against the evil of the nafsand its schemes: It drags man from transgression to apostasy,and from apostasy to admiration of apostasy. The nafs andSatan_ because of underestimating some transgression in thesight of man, afflict him with such transgression. Once thetransgression sets root in the heart, and once it is taken lightly,one is afflicted with a greater transgression by one degree.After its repetition, this, too, falls down in his sight, He under-estimates it and commits one greater than it, and so on he pro-gresses in committing transgressions: one step after another.The major transgressions get minimized in his eyes graduallytill all the transgressions become unimportant to him. The reli-gious laws, the divine and the prophetic way shrink in his view,so he is dragged into apostasy, disbelief and admiration ofthem both." Here ends the speech of the imam.

I say that this precious statement and practical piece of wis-dom, which we have just cited from the great teacher of man-ners, may his shade prolong, is one of the unique practicalpieces of wisdom and lessons of moral cultivation. The mag-nanimity of a transgression and sin may fall in the sight of onewho commits it as a result of repetition. If transgression, fromwhich we seek refuge with Alm, becomes something ordinaryand not ugly, nobody can imagine there will be a limit for itwhere one will stop.

Someone whom I trust from among my believing brethrentold me once that he was in the presence of one of those whouse usury and who trade in it, and that man's hand was shak-ing, uncontrollable. But this person, as a result of repeating hisprohibitive deed, became the first person to take usury in themarket of Kermanshah (now Bakhtaran). The greatest calamityis that this state of being "daring" about transgression causesdarkness in the heart that gradually puts out the 11001 of con-viction, so one will find in himself doubt and hesitation with re-gard to true beliefs. If he does not properly repent and treatthis detrimental ailment, he may be dragged as he draws his

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last breath from life and in the stupor that happens to him atthe time of death to putting, out the noor of conviction in hisheart in its entirety. He goes from this world in a state of dis-belief in Allah Almighty. If his condition becomes like that,there will be no hope at all for his salvation. The gates of hap-piness will be closed from all sides. A reference has been madeto this in verses and traditions. The Almighty has said, "In thelong run, the end of those who do evil will be extremely evil be-cause they rejected God's Signs and held them with ridicule"(Qur'an, 83:14). In the books of tradition, the effect of sinningin the heart is described as the black spot that keeps gettinglarger as one keeps repeatedly sinning till it completely en-circles it. Abu Ja'far (a.a) is also cited in traditions as havingsaid, "Every servant of Allah has a white spot in his heart.When he commits a sin, a block spot comes out of it.

When he repents, that blackness disappears. If he gets deep-er into sinning, that blackness increases till it over-covers thewhiteness, and the person will never return to anything good."This is the meaning of this verse: "By no means! But the stainof the (ill) that they do is on their hearts on account of whatthey used to earn" (Qur'an, 83:14).

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Chapter 11Consequences Of Conceit

There are many consequences, and harms of conceit, andtheir list is as follows :

1. pride2. forgetting a sin and underestimating it3. deprivation of the benefits of admonishment and guidance4. indifference to people's ways of harm5. non-belief in the mercy and favor of Allah

Any of these consequences suffices to render one's perditionand suffering; so, what would you say about all of themcombined?!

PRIDE :

As regarding pride being one of the outcomes of conceit, it isso because both of these characteristics have one and the sameroot. In other words, if one is conceited and arrogant, andwhen one sees himself as being great, his heart's eye will betoo blind to see the faults and shortcomings in him. In thiscase, if he wants to show someone the condition of looking athis own sell greatly, demonstrating the greatness status, hewill then be afflicted by the dangerous ailment of pride.

In other words, the condition of conceit and of one who con-siders himself to be greater than others, so long as it stays in-wardly and has no outward manifestation, it is pride. If it getsout through the senses, it is called arrogance. Both conditions,pride and arrogance, need another person besides the

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individual himself so the latter may see himself inwardly andinnately as being greater than others; it is then that one ischaracterized by pride. Or he may demonstrate his attitude ofthinking he is greater than others to everyone else, hence thisperson becomes characterized by pride. At any rate, pride andarrogance need the other party. Not all pride is like that. Thisis the difference between conceit and pride. A conceited per-son sees himself and his deeds as being great without discern-ing the others. That is, if we suppose there is nobody who isnot conceited, and that Allah. Praise to Him did not create any-one else besides him, so he lives by himself, he can be ima-gined as being arrogant. The arrogant person is at the verge ofthe hell of pride. When he finds someone to whom he candemonstrate his pride, he will then be afflicted with pride andarrogance, and his abode will be hell as is clearly stated in theHoly Qur'an in this verse: "… Is there no abode in Hell for thehaughty?" (Qur'an, 39:60). This is one of the dangerous detri-ments that await the proud. Therefore; all the detriments andafflictions resulting from the sinning characteristic of "pride"can apply to conceit, too; may Allah grant us refuge from it.

FORGETTING ABOUT AND UNDERESTIMATING SINS

Conceit causes one to forget many sins which he committedin the claim that he does not need to reform himself; so hedoes not mend what he had broken. As a result for this heed-lessness, he forgets many sins, and he is not concerned aboutthe sins which he still remembers. This condition may drag oneinto committing new sins. Perhaps this is the meaning referredto in a tradition quoted in al-Shi'a From Imam al-Sadiq (a.s)who cites the Messenger of Allah (a.s) in a tradition in whichMousa (Moses) son of lmran (Amram) asks Satan. "Tell meabout the sin which, when a son of Adam commits, you over-take him." Satan said, "It is when he is proud of himself, thinkstoo much of his good deeds and his sin looks small in his eyes."It is known that when Satan overtakes someone, the result willbe more sinning, in addition to underestimating the for this byitself is an insult to the status of the divine greatness which isone of the greatest sins, and it may stop one from being in-cluded in the divine mercy, as some traditions point out. In the

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sacred book where Zaid the cooking oil seller cites Imam al-Sadiq (a.s) saying that Abu Abdullah said that he had heardAbu Muhammad (a.s) saying, "One of the sins which are notforgiven is when a man says, 'Blessed am I had I only not doneanything other than this [deed ]!" Abu Hashim al-Ja'fari quotesImam al-Hassan al-'Askari (a.s) saying that he heard AbuMuhammad (a.s) saying, "Among the sins that arc not forgivenis one saying, 'I wish I would not be held accountable exceptfor only this [deed]!"

Imam al-Khomeini, the mentor, may I be his sacrifice, has ex-plained that conceit obliterates belief and ruins the rewards forthe good deeds, according to a tradition narrated by Ali ibnSuwaid. The imam was asked about the conceit that spoilsgood deeds, so the imam explained some of its degrees, citingother traditions as well, in this regard. He said the following :

"The conceit tree is bad; its fruit is many major sins and ab-ominations. When its root rests in the heart, one's affair isdragged into disbelief and shirk and more than both of these.One of its consequences is underestimating sins; rather, onewho is conceited is not in the process of reforming himselfclaims it is pure and purified. He does not care at any time topurge himself of the filth of committing offenses. The thick cur-tain of conceit blocks him from seeing his own ills. This cata-strophe stops one from achieving perfections, afflicts him withall sorts of shortcomings, brings about eternal perdition, andthe doctors of the psyche can find no cure for him."

DEPRIVATION FROM BENEFITS OF ADMONITIONAND GUIDANCE

One of the problems with conceit with which one is afflictedas a result of this psychological disease, and as a result of onebelieving in his own superiority over others and the statuswhich he has with Allah, he regards others as ignorant, seeingno value for their viewpoint. As a result for this condition, heaccepts neither advice from any adviser nor any admonishmentfrom any preacher. One who is deprived of the abundant bene-fits of admonishment, both the nafs and Satan have a free hand

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in tempting him. There is a great deal of emphasis in tradi-tions, statements of great men, poets and wise men, on thecompany of the folks of righteousness and on being in contactwith scholars, so much so that even looking at the face of ascholar is adoration, and looking at his house door is adoration,according to traditions. On one hand, the nab' and Satan findno room to tempt him because, as a result of keeping the schol-ars and the wise company, he becomes keenly aware of hisfaults, seeing himself as being derelict on the path towards Al-lah. But if he stops keeping them company, he will be surroun-ded with detriments, and he becomes unaware of his faults, sohe stops seeking his pursuit, claiming he has already achievedhis pursuit and no longer needs to exert any effort. One whosecondition is like that is definitely going to perish and will im-minently fall.

Imam al-Khomeini may his blessings endure, says that amongthe harms of conceit is that one looks askance at Allah's ser-vants, seeing their good deeds as nothing even if they may bebetter than his own: this, too, is one of the paths towards theannihilation of man and thorns on his path.

UNAWARENESS OF THE SERVANTS' DETRIMENTS

Among the perils of conceit is that instead of one seeing hisfaults and shortcomings, he becomes too blind to see these, sohe does not examine his deeds, nor does he ascertain his actsof worship. If the nafs and Satan find their ways to himthrough other venues such as pretension and others, one maytreat himself before it is too late. But due to this disease [ofconceit], one may not correct the conditions required for thesoundness of his rituals and acts of adoration, so his gooddeeds and worship become void even according to obvious reli-gious laws and according to the verdicts of scholars of theSharma. But since he admires his good deeds, he does not lookfor such verdicts so he may apply them to the sacred rites. Thepoor man finds himself in a situation in which the adoration ofas long as fifty years of his lifespan is void and was not correcteven in a way where he can repeat them and make up forthem. What a fault is greater than one being unaware of seeing

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his faults?! The Prophet (a.s) says, "Suffices one for a fault isthat he sees people's faults when being too blind to see hisown." Imam Ali bin Muhammad al-Nadi (a.s) has said, "Onewho is pleased with himself will find many who are displeasedwith him."

Lord! Enable us to see our faults so such vision may be oneof the marks of Your love for us. He, peace be with him, hassaid, "If Allah loves a servant, He enables him to see his ownfaults."

NOT BELIEVING IN ALLAH'S MERCY AND FAVOR

One of the harms of conceit is that it weakens one's relianceon the favor of Allah, the most Blessed, the most Exalted.Those who admire their deeds fall into a severe darkness andperil, so much so that if one mentions one of the favors of Allahand His infinite mercy, they deny it, as if they love that Allah.Praise to Him and Exaltation, deals with I lis servants accord-ing to His justice, so these admirers may be the ones who re-ceive salvation, according to their claim, and their endeavor inundertaking good deeds will not go to waste. In other words,the ailment of conceit creates in the conceited persons the ail-ment of envy, too. If we apply an impossible supposition, thatis, if they are saved through Allah's justice, they do not wishthe rest of people to be saved through His favor. Although theyare deeply immersed in sins, nay, they are the personificationof sins and offenses, if these individuals hear someone savingthat Allah, Praise to Him, forgives - whomsoever lie pleasesand pays no attention to anyone, nor is He concerned abouthim, instead of being pleased and happy with such a statement,they may deny it inwardly though they may not articulate it.They thus object to Allah about why the Praised One shouldthus forgive! In fact, [according to them] He does not forgive,because if he forgives others, what is the difference betweenthem, those who exhausted themselves on the paths of asceti-cism and adoration, and those who did not? They are as theCommander of the Faithful (a.s) described: "He fears for otherson account of what is less than his own sin, hoping to get more

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than his deed [is worthy of], magnifying the offense of otherswhen underestimating what he himself commits. He magnifieshis acts of obedience when underestimating the same whendone by others."

As a result of this disease, the admirers reject most narrat-ives on the side of anticipation narrated by Ahl al-Bayt (a.s), es-pecially with regard to their Shi'ites. They either reject them orinterpret them, with some of their own views and interpreta-tion. For this there are many evidences. We would like to stateone of them as an example:

The great master. Ibn Tawoos, may Allah be pleased withhim, has stated in his book, Al-Iqbal,, a tradition from Imam Aliibn Mousa al-Rida (a.s) about the virtue of the Ghadir Day, Init, the following is stated: "Allah orders in it the honoredscribes not to record the sins of those who love and follow Ahlal-Bayt for three days starting on the Ghadir Day, not to recordany of their sins in honor of Muhammad, Ali, and the Imams(peace be with them), all of them."

This tradition is one of hundreds of similar ones the record-ing and masse from Ahl al-Bayt is definitive, and they have asequentially narrated meaning, but they are heavy on the tasteof those among the worshippers and ascetics who think thatthey are holy and who admire their deeds, so they cast doubtabout them under the guise of defending the creed. They saythat such narratives permit some people to commit offensesduring the three Ghadir days, relying on this narrative.

In making such a statement, they really are not concernedabout the creed: rather, the root of this confusion, as we poin-ted out, is the disease of conceit. Since they rely on theirdeeds, seeing themselves as being in no need for divine care,they feign sorrow for the creed. But they doubt a man of divin-ity and spirituality, such as Ibn Tawoos, who has a moral con-tact with the supreme spiritual kingdom, something which isadmitted by all scholars and great Muslims, and the samedoubt they apply to the great traditionist, al-Majlisi, and othergreat men of the creed. But their sectarian fanaticism is

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actually much greater than their concern. They believe theydefinitely protect the creed more than these holy men. Butthese men have recorded this tradition and similar ones intheir hooks and were not concerned about some readers hav-ing the "courage" to charge them with offense. These "nursesthat are more merciful than the mothers", or the branches thatare superfluous to the main root, defend the sanctities of thecreed. They claim the recording of this tradition and its likescauses people to dare to transgress. These vain claimants musthe told that the curtain of seeing the soul and its adoration ob-structs belief in these facts:

Otherwise, there is no room to dislike such narratives, andthere is no room for confusion. What, then, is the differencebetween a written sin being forgiven and not being written inthe first place? Are there no clear verses and consecutively re-ported narratives that say that Alin Almighty forgives all sins,including the sin of shirk when combined with repentance, ifHe wills, even if one sinned for seventy years? The One Whoforgives the sins of seventy years and wipes them out througha signal from Him, the most Exalted One, does not only wipeout sins but, according to the manifestation of the attribute of"0 One Who changes wrong deeds with good deeds!", replacesa sin with a good deed. Allah changes their sins into gooddeeds… Should such obvious verses and authentic narrativescause people to dare to sin, let that narrative, too, be as such?!Any answer which you provide about these verses and narrat-ives we respond to it by contrasting it with this narrative, andwhat we have stated underscores the scholarly term.

As for the resolving answer and analysis in the issue, onewho truly loves Ali (a.s) is during the Ghadir days immersed inan ocean of happiness and elation. Just as one who is immersedin the sea, surrounded by the tumultuous sea waves does notaccept any outside filth, nor does filth affect him nor makeshim dirty, in the sense that water overwhelms him and sur-rounds him from all sides, so it does not permit filth to bearany impact on him… , so is the case with the Ghadir days: Theydo not permit room for offense's impact which is in the sense ofwriting and confirming, nor does it necessitate crossing the

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borders, either: One who loves Ali (a.s) by instinct shies awayfrom transgressing. If a sin is committed by him, it is by virtueof the overpowering nature and external obstacles. He, havingcommitted a sin, even during committing a sin, is ashamed ofit, regretting it, which is one of the important factors for thesin having no effect and necessitating Allah's forgiveness, notonly during those three days but in all days, during the entirelife-span. The reality of repentance is nothing but this. Repent-ance is regret, and this is what our Lord, the Almighty, has de-creed. Anyone who does not accept Allah's decrees and rulingscan do whatever he wants, whatever he can.

Based on the above, there is no room in the narrative for anydirection, for any affectation, which has been committed bysome of those who say that this narrative and its likes is negat-ive because the subject rejects such a conclusion in the sensethat one who loves Ali (a.s) during these days commits no sin.Or, as some have committed, according to what has beentransmitted by observers from among the sects of the differ-ence between a sin and an offense, it is said that the offense isthe one that is not recorded. As for the sin, it is recorded.Based on this trend, they had a problem passing a judgment onal-Majlisi, criticizing him for having interpreted the offensesreferred to in the narrative as the sins in his book Zad al-Malad. The summary of what they say is that they made a dis-tinction between the offense and the sin. They say that thetransgression is the sin that is clone on purpose, while the of-fense is the sin that is clone unintentionally, unwillingly. Whatis stated in the narrative is that what is not recorded duringthe three Ghadir days is the offense, the sin that is done unin-tentionally, unwillingly, not the transgression that is premedit-ated, clone on purpose, pre-determined, for it is called a sin,not an offense. But this distinction is unnecessary absurdity be-cause a "sin" in the books of language means the absolutetransgression, whether it is on purpose or without. But there isdisagreement about the offense: Is it the absolute sin under-taken on purpose, as is stated in Al-Munjid? In the latter refer-ence, this text exists: "An offense is a sin, and some say it isdone deliberately.

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" The same exists in Muntaha al-Arab so, one can refer tothem if he wishes. What is added to the above is derived fromits linguistic meaning. This term, the offense, is used in theQur'an in more than twenty places, and most of these placescannot convey the sense of a sin done unintentionally or unwill-ingly such as these verses of the Almighty: "… Nor clues hehave any food except the corruption from the washing ofwounds which none eat except those in sin" (Qur'an, 36-37)" :"… And Pharaoh, and those before him, and the overthrown cit-ies, all committed habitual sin" (Qur'an, 69:9); "… A lying, sin-ful forelock!" (Qur'an, 96:16): "Surely those who seek gain inevil and are engulfed in their sins are the companions of theFire: they shall dwell in it (forever)" (Qur'an, 2:81); "Because oftheir sins, they were drowned and were made to enter the Fire(for punishment)" (Qur'an, 71:25). So, how can all these placeswhere Allah, Praised is Ile, makes such strong threats conveythe meaning that an offense is the sin that is done unintention-ally or unwillingly?! How could Pharaoh or the people of Noahor other sinners have committed their sins unwillingly, unin-tentionally?! Even if you overlook all of these, what is themeaning of forgiveness for an offense that is clone unintention-ally or unwillingly during these three days although the narrat-ive refers to a status of gratitude, whereas such forgiveness isnot restricted to it? It is apparent that these trends and explan-ations are unacceptable. They remind one of the Persian axiomwhich says, ".., like one who composes poetry but is unable tocome up with a rhyme scheme!" The imam of the nation, theleader of the Islamic revolution, imam al-Khomeini, may hisblessings endure, has made statements on the occasion of thenarratives cited about the virtue of weeping out of fear of Allahwhich I would like to quote for more benefit:

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Chapter 12Statement In Point By Imam Komeini

The imam, may his shade endure, says the following :

"What has to be pointed out is that some of those with weaksouls, those whose souls are not at ease, cast doubt aboutmany rewards received for partial matters, being indifferent tothe fact that if something seems small in our eyes in the life ofthis world, it does not mean that its image in the world of theunknown and in the angelic world is also small and insignific-ant. Perhaps a small being may have in its domain and in-wardly the perfection of greatness and glory. The sacredphysique and the bodily form of the Honored Prophet, the sealof prophets, the revered Prophet and the great one, peace ofAllah be with him and his progeny, was one of the small exist-ents in this world, hut his holy soul surrounded the domain andthe angelic kingdom and was the cause for the existence of theheavens and the earth. Passing a judgment about the "insigni-ficance" and the small size of something according to its hid-den and angelic image is a branch of knowledge of the angelicworld and Of the hidden and people like us have no right tomake such a judgment. We have to open our eyes and ears tothe words of the scholars of the hereafter world. I mean theprophets and friends of Allah, peace be with them all.Moreover, that world is based on the Almighty bestowing Hisfavors and infinite mercy, while there is neither an end nor alimit to Allah's favors. Absolute exclusion from the favor of themost Generous One Who has the infinite mercy originates fromextreme ignorance, for all these blessings which He has be-stowed upon His servants and which the minds are too incap-able of and are too puzzled to count, all came into being

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without anyone asking for or being worthy of. So, what is theobjection if He bestows many times as many as these boons un-to His servants without precedence? Is this too much to expectin a world that was built on the influence of the human will andabout which the following verse was revealed: "There will heall that the souls could desire there, all that the eves could de-light in" (Qur'an, 43:71), despite man's desires having neitheran end nor a measure?! Allah, the most Blessed and ExaltedOne, determined that world and the human will so as manwould exist according to His mere will.

"So, my dear one, the narratives and the sacred traditions forthese boons arc not just one or two or ten so one may haveroom to deny them. Rather, they are beyond the limit of beingconsecutively reported, and all the reliable books of traditionsare filled with such quotations. These are similar to one hear-ing with his own ears from the Infallible Ones, peace be withthem, and they allow no room for interpretation. Such a re-quirement is in total agreement with the consecutively repor-ted texts and not in collision with the evidence, but in agree-ment with it, backed by evidence. Denying it is a proof for theweakness of one's conviction and an indication of his extremeignorance. One has to unhesitatingly accept the statements ofthe prophets and friends of Allah, peace be with them, andthere is nothing better than man submitting to the masters ofthe truth, especially in the matters where reason cannot re-veal, nor is there a way to comprehend them except throughthe venue of inspiration and message.

If man wants to insert his small mind, his whims andthoughts, in the unknown and the worship matters of theShari'a, he will end up denying what is generally accepted andwhat is necessary. He will gradually be dragged from what isfew to what is many, from what is low to what is high. If wesuppose that you cast doubts about these narratives and theirism-0, although there is no room in them for denial, you will becasting doubt about the Glorious Divine Book, the heavenlysacred Qur'an, for it has many such rewards. An example isthis verse: "The night of power is better than a thousandmonths" (Qur'an, 97:3), and like this verse: "The parable of

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those who spend their substance in the way of Allah is that of akernel of corn: It grows seven ears, and each ear has a hun-dred kernels. Allah gives manifold increase to whomsoever Hepleases" (Qur'an, 2:261). In my opinion, I the writer, one of thereasons for these exclusions and denials is conceit and themagnifying of deeds. For example, if someone fasts for one dayor spends the entire night in adoration, then he hears thatthere are great rewards for his deed, he will not think it asbeing far-fetched. Also, this by itself exists had the deed had itsown reward, but he magnifies his deed, admires it, so he be-lieves there is such a reward.

"My dear one :

"If we suppose that we, in all our lifespan, say fifty or sixtyyears, undertook all the obligations stated in the Shari'a, thenwe moved from this life with a sound belief, with good deedsand sound repentance, what is the measure of the reward forour righteous deeds and conviction? According to the Book andthe Sunnah as well as the consensus of all sects, such an indi-vidual receives the mercy of the Truthful One, the most Exal-ted, and he enters Paradise with which he is promised, agarden in which he will remain eternally in bliss and ease, ineverlasting mercy, tranquility and fragrance" Is there room inthis for denial, had the basis been the reward for the gooddeed? Let us erroneously suppose that our righteous deeds areworthy of being rewarded, the reward of this person will behardly imaginable in quantity and quality. It is understood fromthis that the matter is based on another premise and revolveson another axis: so, there is no room for exclusion, and there isno venue opening for denial."

Here ends his statement, may his shade prolong.

Among the other harms of conceit is that it forces the con-ceited person to be pretentious. This is so because demonstrat-ing what is beautiful of the human instincts and stopping toshow off one's beauty is very difficult, just as difficult as it isfor a hungry and thirsty person not to eat and drink. The menof knowledge, those who are giants in this field, have very

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interesting situations and made very precise statements, but itis not suitable to quote them here. This sense does not distin-guish between true beauty and an imagined, fake one. Onewho admires his deeds, since they look good in his eyes, andsince the deeds which he does must be shown to others, findsit very difficult to withstand this psychological inclination. Hadhe had this will, he would not have been afflicted with conceitin the first place. This is the opposite of one who does not ad-mire his deeds. He does not see them as being anything but asnothing, seeing his manners dismal and his conviction as beingunworthy of being demonstrated to others; so, he does not ad-mire himself, his attributes or deeds. Rather, he sees himselfas not beautiful at all. Such a person is in no position to make ashow of himself and present his deeds to others. He is just asimam Khomeini, may his shade endure, has said, "The rottenand ugly merchandise is never displayed at the wholesale mar-ket." But if he sees himself and his deeds as presentable, hewill be in a position to show off his beautiful deeds in their ima-gined beauty. Therefore, all the harms mentioned in thesesheets are definitely counted among the harms of conceit aswell. In the field of the harms of conceit, the greatest mentor ofmanners and spirituality, imam Khomeini, may his blessingslast forever, has made a statement, and here is a translation ofits text :

WISE ADMONISHMENT BY IMAM KHOMEINI :

"Let the conceited person know that this abomination is theseed of all other abominations and the cause of many matterseach one of which independently causes eternal annihilationand lodgment in torment. If he gets to know these harms prop-erly, reviewing them carefully, studying the reports andlegacies of the greatest Prophet and his Ahl al-Bayt, blessingsof Allah be with them all, he will surely see for himself that hemust reform them and purge himself of this abomination, mustuproot it from his inner self so he may not leave this world,God forbid, and go to the next carrying this abomination withhim. This is because once the worldly eye is closed, when onesees the power of the barzakh and .judgment, he will see thatthe condition of those who committed great transgression is

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better than his own, for Allah Almighty permitted them to divein oceans of His mercy on account of their repentance, or dueto their reliance on the favor of Allah Almighty, whHe thispoor-person who saw himself as being independent, seeing in-wardly that he had no need for the favor of Allah Almighty, Al-lah, praise to Him, held him to account through the scales ofHis justice, just as he wanted: Now 1-le informs him that henever intended to truly worship the Truthful One, that all hisacts of worship distanced him from the side of the TruthfulOne, all his deeds and conviction were not only nil and nothingbut necessitated his perdition. They were seeds for painful tor-ment, a cause for being lodged into hell forever. God forbidthat Allah, praise to I Jim, should deal with anyone through Hisjustice, for had this tablet been opened, none from the firstgenerations and the last would have had a way to salvation.The imams of guidance, peace be with them, and the greatprophets used to hope, in their silent supplications to Allah, forHis favor, the most Praised One, and they were terrified by Hisjustice and judgment.

"The silent supplication by the elite ones to the Truthful Oneand to the Infallible Imams (peace be with them) are full of ad-mission of dereliction, of incapacitation to truly adore. In oneplace, the one who is the very best of everything in existencedeclares the following: "We never knew You as You ought to beknown, nor did we adore You as You ought to be adored." Thecondition of the rest of people is well known. Yes, they realizedthe greatness of the Truthful One, the Almighty, knowledge-able of the ratio of what is possible to what is mandatory. Theyknew that had they spent their entire lifespan in the life of thisworld adoring, being obedient, praising and glorifying Him,they would never have thanked Allah for His blessings: so, howcould they fully meet the requirements for praising Him andHis attributes? They knew that nothing exists by itself, on itsown, that life, ability, knowledge, power and all the other per-fections are but the shadow of His perfection, the Almightythat lie is. What can he is poor, rather, purely poor, living inHis shade, never being independent. How can there be anyperfection for one by himself so he may display his perfectionfor sale? What power does he have so he may bargain over his

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work? The ones who are knowledgeable of Allah, of the beautyof the Truthful One, of His Greatness, witnessed through visionand sight how imperfect they are, how incapable, how weightytheir obligation is, while we, poor souls, are surrounded by thebarrier of ignorance, indifference and conceit! The barrier ofinwardly and outwardly transgressions has veiled from oureyes, ears, minds, senses and the rest of faculties, so much sothat we display our existence in contrast with the overwhelm-ing authority of the Truthful One, the Almighty, claiming inde-pendence, saying we are something.

"So, poor being who has no knowledge about his own selfand about his ratio to the Creator! 0 poor wretch who is un-aware of his function compared to the One Who owns thekings! Such ignorance, such lack of knowledge, is the cause ofthese sufferings. We have been afflicted by them because ofthe darkness and impurity. The destruction starts from its ori-gin: the water is impure from its source; our eyes are too blindto see the deep knowledge. Our hearts are dead. Such is thereason for all the calamities. Yet we are not in the process toreform them, either …

"Lord! We plead to You to grant us success, acquaint us withour functions, grant us a share of the lights of deep knowledgewith which You tilled the hearts of those who know and thoseof Your friends! Show us how Your power and authority over-whelm, how faulty we are, and enable us to understand themeaning of praising Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. We are thepoor ones, the unaware, who attribute all the praiseworthy at-tributes to the beings; do inform our hearts that not a singlegood attribute belongs initially to any being, and show us thetruth of tins verse: "Anything good (0 man!) that happens toyou is from Allah, but whatever evil happens to you is fromyour (own) nafs (soul)" (Qur'an, 4:79), and instill in our cruelhearts, the impure one, the blessed statement of Tawhid, forwe are the people of the barrier, of the dark, of shirk and hypo-crisy. We love ourselves, we admire them, so help us take thelove for the nuts and for this world out of our hearts. Do makeus loving Alin, worshipping I surely YOU can do anything atall."

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This is the conclusion of the wise admonishment of imamKhomeini, may his blessings last.

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Chapter 13Treating The Conceit Sickness

GREAT BENEFIT BY IMAM KHOMEINI IN TREATINGCONCEITINCLUSIVE STATEMENT BY IMAM AL-SADIQ(a.s)

TREATING THE CONCEIT SICKNESS

Be informed, dear one, that the physical doctors, when treat-ing the physical sicknesses, exert their effort first to find outthe cause of the sickness, trying to find out its causing germ.Once they have succeeded in this stage, they treat the sicknessby eradicating the germ with the use of a counter-germ. Thepatient will then recover his health and safety.

Likewise, the scientists of manners and the spiritual doctorshave also used this method in treating the spiritual and psycho-logical sicknesses. Yes, there is a difference between this andthat, which is: In the spiritual and psychological sicknesses,the knowledge of the cause of the sickness may itself be itstreatment without the need to another process. In other words,in the spiritual sicknesses, the cause of which is ignorance.There is no factor in causing the sickness save ignorance, Inthis case, if the causes and factors based on ignorance areidentified, their structure will collapse and be replaced withknowledge. The sickness that was rendered to ignorance disap-pears, and there is no need for a practical treatment program.For example, when someone is afflicted with fear, and he fearsisolation and the dark place, if this person directs his attentionto the fact that the origin of his fear is his imagination andwhim, and that there is nothing outside his mind at all, and he

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does not make sure about the harm that he may receive by theoutside dark and the isolation… , so if he realizes this meaning,this knowledge itself suffices in the dissipation of his fear fromisolation and the dark without the need for a practical treat-ment, the sickness, which is the subject of our discussion. Imean conceit, belongs also to this same type of spiritual sick-nesses. If one does not entirely lean on ignorance, definitely animportant portion of it based on ignorance [i.e, he must leaveno share for ignorance to dictate to him what he should orshould not do]. It is hoped that this dangerous sickness will dis-appear by paying attention to what we have stated, to the prac-tical reminders. If some of it remains in the soul, its owner de-rives divine niceties and is thus successful in eradicating thesubstance of this sickness completely, by the will of Allah. Inthis field, we would like to briefly quote what some scholars ofthe hereafter have said so the benefit may thereby be complete:

As we stated before, the origin of conceit' in man is his see-ing the attribute of perfection in his nafs even if it is not a realperfection but an imagined one. It is known that perfection isof many types and is divided from one standpoint into twokinds :

FIRST : The perfections that come to be through the choiceof the individual and are optional, SECOND : The perfectionsthat do not fall under his choice: rather, he is awarded themwithout his having had a say in their regard, such as beauty,lineage, and the like. Since conceit penetrates the heart mostlyby way of optional perfections, we would like to tackle themand say the following :

If we suppose there is someone who is pious and God-fear-ing, and he performs many acts of adoration. If he admiresthem because these attributes and righteous deeds rest in himbeing the one who undertakes them, believing that the originof a righteous deed comes from AIM, Praise to Him, and that isthe One Who bestows his attribute on him and enables him toundertake this deed, yet he, despite this [sound] belief, stillfeels conceited … , this is nothing hut ignorance because this

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individual to whom reference is made is being utilized, and hehas nothing to do with originating; so, how can he admire adeed with which he has nothing to do?

But if he is conceitd because this attribute or that deedcomes out of him rather than anyone else, and it takes placethrough his choice, his ability, let him think about the ability,the will, his physical parts and the rest of causes that have arole in completing carrying out the good deed: Where did heget them from? If he gets to know that all this comes from Al-lah, the most Praised One from His boons which He grantedhim without his being requiring them, without a precedence ora means … , in this portrait, he ought to admire the TruthfulOne, the Almighty, and admire His generosity and favor whichHe bestowed upon him these boons without being worthy ofthem, preferring him over others, rather than admiring him-self. In order to explain this minute Gnostic quest, let us state-an example:

Let us suppose that a king reviews his troops. He looks atthem and promotes one of them, not for a particular merit inhim, nor beauty, nor service, to receive a promotion. This sol-dier ought to admire the favor 0f the king, his looking after himand preferring him over others without his being worthy of it,and he ought not admire his own self.

Yes, this soldier may admire himself and say, "The king iswise, fair, and does not do injustice to anyone, nor does he op-press, advance or delay except for a reason, nor does he granta rank to someone nor extract it out of him without a cause.So, the king must have noticed in me a commendable innate at-tribute, so he thus preferred me over others for the promotion.I lad it not been for that attribute, he would not have preferredme." But he has to remember, at the same time, who gave himthis attribute, too. Is it one of the boons of the king, the rankwith which he specifically gave him rather than anyone else'?Or did someone else give it to him? if it is a gilt from the king,too, he is not justified for admiring himself. If we suppose thatthe king had given him a horse as a gift, then he gave him aservant, too, he ought not feel conceited because just as he

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was not being worthy of possessing the horse, he likewise didnot deserve to get the servant. Likewise, there is no differencebetween the king giving him the horse and the servant togeth-er and giving him the horse first then the servant.

If all comes from him, this recipient ought to admire the kingand his generosity unless we suppose he obtained the horse,for example, on his own and the king gave him the servant spe-cifically. But this supposition applies to great men, to worldlykings. As regarding the King of Kings, the originator of exist-ence and of its requirements and consequences, such as Hisgenerosity and outgiving, the only One Who originates the be-ing and the attribute … , such a supposition does not hold anywater at all. This is so because if one, for example, is enabledto admire, and conceit finds its way to him from the venue thatAllah, the most Praised One, was the One Who enabled him toundertake such adoration, but he thinks that this ability is dueto his love for Him, that such love is the reason for success ofthis adoration … , yet in this case lie must ask himself thisquestion : Who cast this love in my heart? The soul will defin-itely answer him saying, "Surely It is Allah Who honored mewith this love." So, let him tell himself that both the love andthe adoration are blessings from Allah which He gave him ,without being worthy of them. So, your admiration must be ofHis generosity and open-handedness, for He has blessed youwith existence, granted you your attributes, prepared for youthe means to undertake acts of righteousness… : therefore,there is no sense for a worshipper to admire his worship, nor ascholar to admire his knowledge, nor a beautiful person to ad-mire his beauty, nor a wealthy person to admire his wealth, forall these are due to the favor of Allah Almighty, and their recip-ient is the object of the outpouring favors and generosity of Al-lah. The individual himself coming into being is also a sign of llis generosity and favor.

Dear kind reader : You may not have arrived at the root ofthe pursuit, although this pursuit is apt to win your accept-ance, but there may be some insinuation in the heart that stopsone from believing in it. Unless there is belief in something, themere knowing of it does not bear much impact. We have

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already stated, whHe discussing pretension, that conviction isnot the same as knowledge. Some people may have knowledge,but since they have no conviction about what they do, thisknowledge does not benefit them in anything. The cursed Eblishad the knowledge about the beginning and the return, so hesaid, "You created me from fire… " (Qur'an, 7:12), "Grant me arespite till the Day they are raised up" (Qur'an, 7:14), but sincehe had no conviction in what he knew, he got out of the band ofbelievers and entered into that of the unbelievers as the HolyQur'an clearly states: "… he refused and was haughty: lie wasof those who reject faith" (Qur'an, 2:34). Attention ought to begiven to the phrase "… and was of those who reject faith". Re-fusal and haughtiness about prostrating to Adam were the res-ult of his being an already rejecter of the faith in the past.

It is not just because he merely did not prostrate to Adamthat he became a rejecter of the faith.

Anyhow, we submit a query in order to remove the hissingfrom the heart and hope after getting the answer for this ques-tion that the cursed Satan will lose hope and the heart will beready for the light of conviction to shine in it. The question isthis :

Although we know that success and blessings are from Allah,how can we ignore our good deeds which we did and for whichwe anticipate to be rewarded? Had they not been our own do-ing, we would not have hoped for rewards for them because wedo not expect to be rewarded for deeds done by others. So, ifthe deeds are not truly from us, what is this reward which Al-lah, Praised is lie, promised to grant us? And if the deeds areours, how can we ignore them and not admire them?

This question has two answers: a real answer and a com-promising one. The real answer is that since realizing it isbased on witnessing those who have hearts and holding coun-sel with those who are adorned with good conduct and not spe-cifically according to the understanding of most, people, we donot mention it and contend ourselves with the second answer:Let us suppose that your claim about your deed is accurate,

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that you did the deed through your ability, although your veryexistence and the requirements to maintain your existence allcome from Allah, the most Praised One, yet, at the same time,had you not been in existence, your deed, will and ability wouldnot have existed, either, nor would this deed have been done.Thereupon, if the deed comes as a result of your ability, suchability is the key to doing this deed, and this key is in the handsof Allah Almighty.

Let us suppose the world's treasures are placed in a securefort and its keys are in the hands of the guard. If we try forthousands of years to enter the fort by climbing over its wall,or find a way to get inside it, you will not be able to do that,nor can you fare with one dinar of the funds deposited in it. Butif the guard gives you the key and grants you authority overthe funds and precious stones in the fort, you will easily beable to take from them whatever you wish. Be fair and answerthis question: Will you admire the guard who gave you this key,or will you admire stretching your hand and taking the moneyand the jewels from the safe? There is no doubt that you see itas a blessing from the guard and a boon on you, and you do notsee your taking the money as having any credit for yourself be-cause all the role in the guard giving you the key lied in hisown, presence there and then. He was present, so he gave youthe key. If Allah, Praise to Him, grants the ability in you andgives you power over your will, mobilizing the incentives andprompting you, removing the obstacles and diversions fromyour path and facilitating for you the doing of the deed… , is itnot odd if you overlook the admiration of the One Who gaveyou all these things and not admire His presence, favor andgenerosity and admire, thus, the little motion that we supposecomes out of you?!

So, open your heart's eyes, my dear one, observe the OneWho really causes things, and witness with piercing eyes thevery cause. Do not be deceived by Satan and by the nuts, forthey both are your enemies. Their ability is only to make yourfalse beliefs, contemptible characteristics and wrongdoingslook good in your eyes. Instead of lowering your head withthese matters and making you feel shy about them, they force

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you to admire them. So, how can you feel secure and be indif-ferent if they decorate your acts of worship for you and pushyou towards being proud of them till all your acts of worshipare rendered void, rendering your deeds in Sijjeen after youhoped it would be in 'Illiyyeen?!

Dear one, consider the conditions of those who are loved byand close to Allah, Praise to Him, and you will see how theyused to see themselves as bankrupt of good deeds towards Al-lah, Praise to Him. The Commander of the Faithful, Ali (a.s),wrote the following verse of poetry on the shroud of Salman,despite his acts of adoration, asceticism and the arrival at thetenth degree of conviction :

I am coming to the Generous One without rations Of gooddeeds and the heart is sound.

One of the great men used to say the following whenever astorm blew out or saw thunder and lightning in the sky: "No illbefalls people except it is on my own account; had Ata' died,people would have been relieved."

After his return from 'Arafat, one of these great men wasasked how he saw the standing there. He said, "I was hopefulthey would all receive mercy had I only not been among them."

So, dear one, beware lest you should doubt these Islamicbranches of knowledge which are supported by verses and nar-ratives relying on witnesses about those who ruled over theirhearts, for it [conceit] is the greatest veil against realizing thetruth. This sickness, conceit, when coupled with this veil. Godforbid, will be chronic and incurable.

Yes, my dear one, Allah Almighty fares with the hearts of Hisservants, and they have conditions with which we are not fa-miliar. We, the poor ones who are unaware of all matters, nev-er realize the state of submission in the heart of the friends ofAllah in all our lifetime, not even for a moment, and we are jus-tified if we do not see them because they are the outcome ofthe manifestation of the Greatness of the Truthful One, the

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most Exalted One, to the heart. It is then that the mountain ofegotism and selfishness is crushed: "When his Lord manifestedHis glory on the mount, He made it like dust" (Qur'an, 7:143).If the power of truth rests in a heart and takes its seat in it,there will be no effect in that heart for seeing the nuts and ad-miring it: "When kings enter a town, they ruin it, and make thenoblest of its people the meanest" (Qur'an, 27:34). We, thefolks who are immersed in desires and afflicted with the wishesof the nafs, have no acquaintance with such worlds.

So, Praise be to Allah! What a difference it is between the pi-ous hearts and submissive souls land others!, between the indi-viduals who are drowned in conceit and haughtiness, so muchso that if one of them is insulted, or taken lightly, or harmed,he will think it far-fetched that Allah, Praise to Him, will in-clude the doer in His forgiveness, nor does he doubt that hebecame cursed by Allah because of this insult. This is so al-though if someone harmed a Muslim, he would not denounce itas such and hope for Allah's forgiveness for his sin. This is dueto holding himself great, to his admiration of his own self,which is ignorance, the combination of conceit, pride and tak-ing Allah lightly. Ignorance, foolishness and stupidity maycause some people to be defiant and say, "You will see whatwill happen to him because of what he did to me." If he is acci-dentally afflicted with a setback, he renders it to his own selfand claim it is due to his own status of goodness, and that Al-lah Almighty wanted thus to cure his ailment, please his con-science and seek revenge on his behalf although this poor per-son sees classes of the unbelievers cursing Allah and the Mes-senger and knows a group that harmed the prophets, peace bewith them. Some beat those prophets and others killed them.

Yet, despite all of this, Allah gave a respite to most of themand did not outright punish them for their actions in the life ofthis world, nor did He torment them on their account. Rather,some of them may have believed, so no harm touched them,neither in the life of this world nor in the hereafter. Even Wah-shi, the man who killed Hamzah, the master of martyrs, theone [uncle] who was the dearest to the Messenger of Allah

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(a.s), harming his revered heart, was enabled to repent and tobelieve.

But this ignorant conceited person claims he is clearer to Al-lah than the Messenger of Allah (a.s), and insulting him is moreserious than killing the master of martyrs Hamzah, for Allah.Praise to Him, sought revenge on his behalf against those whoinsulted him when not seeking revenge against the killers ofprophets. He thus thinks he has a greater status with Allahthan that of His prophets. In thus admiring himself and beingconceited, he may have incurred the contempt of Allah whenbeing unaware of his own annihilation. He and his deeds are inSijjeen. One who commits more sins than others may be nearerto Allah Almighty than he is according to the sacred narrativein Al-Kafi from Abu Abdullah (a.s) who says, "Allah knows thatsins are better for the believer than conceit. [lad it not been so.He would not have afflicted a believer with a sin at all."

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Chapter 14Great Benefit Provided By Khomeini InTreating Conseit

We would like to conclude this research with something use-ful provided to us by our greatest mentor, Imam Khomeini,may his blessings last, in the field of treating the conceit sick-ness. It is hoped that those who seek it will arrive at the anti-cipated result with precision according to the useful statementof our mentor and of those stated by great scholars of ethics,and surely Allah grants success and helps.

Imam Khomeini, may his shade last, says the following :

"Be informed that the contemptible sin of conceit is createdby loving the nafs. This is so because man by nature loves it,and loving the nafs is the source of every human sin and theorigin of all moral vices. Because of this love, man sees his in-significant deeds as looking great in his eyes, seeing himself asa benevolent person when doing these deeds and one of thosewho enjoy a special status with the Truthful One, the Almighty.He sees himself because of these insignificant deeds, worthy ofpraise and lauding. His ugly deeds may be decorated for him.When he sees others doing better and greater deeds than hisown, he is not concerned about them. He often interpretspeople's good deeds in a bad way when interpreting his uglydeeds and wrongdoings as good according to a level of inter-pretation. He thus thinks ill of Allah's manner when thinkingwell of his own self. He, through this love, sees himself as cred-iting the Truthful One, the Almighty, obligating Him to be mer-ciful to him through an insignificant deed which is mixed witha thousand filths and with everything that distances one from

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his Lord. We ought to think for a short when of the good deedsand the acts of adoration which come out of us in order to seeif we deserve to be praised and lauded on their account and beworthy of rewards and mercy, or should we be blamed, penal-ized and receive the wrath on their account? If the TruthfulOne burnt us with the lire of His subduing and wrath becauseof these deeds which we consider to be good, it would havebeen truthful and just.

"I now would like to seek your own judgment, reader, withregard to the question which I am going to submit to you andask you to confirm, after thinking and considering with theeyes of fairness: the question is :

"Had the glorious Prophet, peace of Allah be with him andhis progeny, who is truthful and trustworthy, informed you thatif you worshipped Allah Almighty and obeyed His command-ments as long as you live, abandoning illicit desires and wishesthroughout your life, or if you disobeyed His commandmentsall your life and acted according to the dictates of your ownself and illicit desires, it will not make a difference in the de-grees of your hereafter and you will be saved anyhow andenter Paradise and be secure against the torment without a dif-ference between your performance of the prayers or your com-mitting adultery, but the pleasure of Allah Almighty is in keep-ing yourself busy worshipping Him, praising and lauding Him,abandoning your illicit desires and inclinations in this world,and that Allah, Praised is He, does not grant you rewards in ex-change for this action in the first place… , will you be in thissupposition among the sinners, or would you be among thosewho adore? Would you abandon the illicit desires and depriveyourself of pleasures in order to earn His Pleasure, the mostPraised One, and out of your love for Him, or would you not?Would you be regular in doing what is commendable, in ob-serving Friday congregational prayers, mass acts of worship,or would you immerse yourself in illicit desires, merriment,play, singing, etc.? Answer when eying equity and withoutpretending.

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"As for me, I can tell you about myself and about those whoare like me. We used to be in that condition, among the people-of transgression, leaving acts of obedience behind our backs,following our illicit desires, and the result of all of our deedswas for the sake of personal pleasures and to look after thestomach and private part! We were those with bellies.

Worshippers of their desires. But we abandoned such pleas-ures for the sake of a much greater pleasure. Our full attentionand hopes rested on making the desires easily accessible to us.The prayers, which are the ascending ladder to nearness toAlPah, we prayed so we could be close to the women ofParadise and not connected to nearness to the Truly Almightynor connected to obedience to the command of Allah: The pray-er was distant by thousands of parasangs from Allah, Praise toHim.

"O poor soul ignorant of the divine knowledge who knowsnothing but taking care of your desire and anger! And you,holy man, who is regular in performing his rituals and optionalacts of worship as well as obligations, who abandons what ishated and prohibitive, who is adorned with good manners andwho avoids bad conduct! Weigh your deeds with the scales ofequity so you may see that all these deeds to reach the selfishdesires, to sit on a bench of emeralds, to sleep with the hurlshaving large lovely eyes, to wear silk and brocade, to live inhigh mansions and to achieve the wishes! Can all these deeds,which are all for the sake of worshipping and loving the self, heattributed to Allah and to the worship of the Truthful One?What is the difference between you and the one who works fora wage? If the worker tells his boss that he has done his jobpurely for his own sake, you will call him a liar. Are yon not aliar when you say that your prayers are for seeking nearness toAllah or to be close to the women of Paradise and achieve whatyou desire? Let me say the following frankly: All our acts ofworship, in the eyes of those who know Allah and who arefriends of Allah, are themselves major transgressions.

"So, poor soul, you act before the Truthful One, the mostGreat, and before His angels who are close to Him contrarily to

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the pleasure of the Almighty, when adoration is the ascensionladder for nearness to Him which is performed by the nafs thatquite often commands the doing of wrongdoing and by Satanwhile, at the same time, you have no shame but lie in every actof worship many times before the Almighty and the angelsclose to Him! You invent claims, thinking you are doing Him afavor, feeling proud of what you are doing, acting like a spoiledchild, having no shame! What is the difference between myworship and yours coupled with die transgressions of thetransgressors the strongest of which is pretension, for preten-sion is shirk; its ugliness and seriousness are due to worshipnot done for the sake of the Almighty. All our acts of worshipare shirk, and there is no tint of loyalty and sincerity in them.Rather, the pleasure of Allah Almighty does not find its way tothem due also to shirk. Rather, they are for the sake of attain-ing pleasures, for satisfying the stomach and the private part.So, dear one, a prayer service aiming at achieving the love of awoman, be she one of the women of this life or of the hereafter,is not for the sake of Allah. A prayer service undertaken for thesake of reaching the hopes of this life or the aspirations of thehereafter is not connected with Allah:

So, why such flirtation and indulgence?! You look down atthe servants of Allah, thinking that you are one of those chosenby the Truthful One! 0 poor soul! You, through such a prayerservice deserves to be tormented and are worthy of a chain thelength of which is seventy yards. So, why do you see yourselfas having credit with Allah, preparing for yourself through thisflirtation and conceit an additional torment? You are supposedto perform the deeds which you are ordered to perform andpay attention to their being for the sake of Allah. Be informedthat Allah Almighty permits you to enter Paradise through Hisfavor and mercy. The most Praised One has lightened someshirk for His servants due to their weakness, throwing on themthe covering veil through His forgiveness. Do not violate thesanctity of this covering, and leave the covering of forgivenessof the Truthful One placed on the bad deeds which we called"acts of worship" for. God forbid, if the pages are turned andthe pages of justice are brought, the stink of our worship will

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be no less than that of our transgressions, the sins oftransgressors.

"Thiqatul-Islam [the one trusted by the Muslims], al-Kulaini,has narrated in through isnad to Imam al-Sadiq (a.s) who citesthe Messenger of Allah (a.s) saving, "Allah, the most Exaltedand Great, said to Dawud [David]: 'Give the glad tidings to thesinners and warn the truthful ones.' Dawud said, 'How do Igive glad tidings to the sinners and warn the truthful ones?'Almighty said, 'O Dawud! Give the glad tiding to the sinnersthat i accept the repentance and forgive the sin, and warn thetruthful ones against admiring their deeds, for I do not let aservant of Mine stand for judgment except that he perishes."'So, since the truthful ones perish in the process of the judg-ment, although they are pure of sins and transgressions, what Ican say, and what can you?!

"All this is as such if our deeds and yours are indicative ofpurely worldly pretension which is one of the abominations andprohibitions, and seldom does it coincide that we do a gooddeed which is free of pretension and hypocrisy. Leave this sub-ject alone; we shall not talk about it.

"Now, if there is room for conceit, flirtation and indulgence,do it. And if fairness places one in a position where he feelsashamed, lowering his head, admitting his shortcoming, thenseek forgiveness and repent to Him with seriousness. In allreality clear each act of worship which you undertake from thelies which you pronounced in the presence of the Truthful One,the most Exalted, and about the titles which you bestowedupon yourself without any right. Should you not repent aboutsaying, whHe facing the Truthful One, the most ExaltedOne, prior to performing your prayer, "I have directed my facetowards the One Who created the heavens and the earth, sub-missive, believing, and I am not among the polytheist: surelymy prayers, asceticism, life and death are for the sake of Allah,Lord of the Worlds"? Did you really submit your heart to theOne Who created the heavens and the earth? Are you really aMuslim'? Are you pure of shirk? Are your prayers, adoration,life and death for the sake of Allah? Should you not feel

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ashamed when you say in your prayer. "Praise to Allah, theLord of the Worlds"? Do you really see all praise being due tothe Truthful One, the Almighty, or do you see it fitting His ser-vants, even praise due for the enemies of Allah? Is this not ly-ing when you say, "Praise to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds", al-though you fix lordship in this world for others? Is repentancenot required when you say, "Thee do we worship, and fromThee do we seek help"?

Do you worship Allah, or do you really worship your appetitefor food and lust for sex? Do you seek Allah or do you want thehurls with large lovely eyes? Do you really seek help only fromAllah, and does every matter in your eves seem to be renderedto only Allah? Is your pursuit and goal is Allah when you go tovisit the House Allah? Is your pursuit and goal the Owner ofthe House? And does your heart act upon the statement of thepoet who says, "It is not love for the abodes that occupies myheart [but1 it is the love for those that live therein]"? Do youseek Allah'? Do you seek the manifestations of the Greatnessand Beauty of the Truthful One'? Do you hold commemorativegatherings for the sake of the master of the oppressed? Do youbeat your chest and head for his sake, or is it to reach yourwealth and wishes, and the catalyst for your holding commem-orative gatherings is the craving of the stomach? What pushesyou towards the congregational prayers is the craving for thesexual intercourse with the hurls of Paradise], and whatprompts you to keep you busy with the rituals and acts of ador-ation is love for your own self.

"Brother! Discern the traps of the nut's- and of Satan, and beinformed that Satan does not let you undertake a single sincereact [of worship], and these insincere deeds which were accep-ted by Allah, Glory to Him, only out of His favor, Satan doesnot let you get them to reach home; so, he fares with you, andwith them, rendering them as nil through conceit and indul-gence. Thus, this gain, too, passes you by, for you have dis-tanced yourself from Allah and from His Pleasure, and you didnot reach Paradise or the harts with large lovely eyes. This isnot all. You became eternally lodged in the torment, tortured inthe subduing fire of Allah. Did you claim that through these

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worn out deeds, the stinking and shaky ones, the ones mixedwith pretension and desire for fame, with a thousand calamit-ies each one of which bans the acceptance of your deeds, thatyou indeed have done Allah Almighty a favor, or you joined thecompany of those who love or who are loved? O poor soul!

Who is unaware of the condition of those who [truly] love,and the wretch who is ignorant of the hearts of the loverswherein fire burns, the poor soul that is unaware of the burn-ing of the sincere ones, of the poor of their deeds… , did youthink that their deeds, too, were like my deeds and ours? Didyou imagine the prayers of the Commander of the Faithful (a.s)as having distinguished itself from our prayers because aphrase in it was recited with prolongation or the recitation wasmore accurate than ours, or the bowing and prostrating werelonger, or the praises and pleas were more numerous thanours, or that he, peace be with him, distinguished himself fromus by praying during every night many prostrations, or that thesilent supplication [munajat] of the master of those who pros-trate was like mine and yours, and that he shed his tears andcried for the sake of the hurls with large lovely eyes and for theplums and pomegranates of Paradise?!

"By their lives, and it surely is a great oath, if all humans pre-tended and wanted to utter a single "La ilaha illa Allah!" [Thereis no god except Allah] a single time just it was uttered by theCommander of the Faithful (a.s), they would never he able todo that. So, woe unto me for thus knowing the status of the au-thority of Ali, peace be with him! I swear by the status of Aliibn Abu Talib (a.s) that had the angels close to Allah and themessengers, aside from the Seal of Messengers, who is themaster of Ali and of everyone else, that had they wanted tomake a single takbir like that of Ali, they would never be ableto do it: the condition of their hearts is known only bythemselves.

"So, dear one! Lessen your claim that you love Allah.

"O you man of knowledge, the ascetic one, the judge, the onewho performs jihad, who subjects his heart to exercise, the

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faqih, the believer, the holy one! 0 poor souls, the wretcheswho are afflicted by the traps and desires of the nafs! O help-less folks who are afflicted by the hopes, wishes and love fortheir own selves! Since we all are incapable, and we all wor-ship when being distant by many parasangs from sincerity andfrom loving Allah … , do not think well of yourselves, and donot act like the spoiled ones, and ask your hearts if they trulyseek Allah or seek their own selves. Does the heart believe inthe Unity of Allah and seek the One and Only God, or is it poly-theistic? What is this conceit, and what is the meaning of suchpointing out to the deeds? If the value of a good deed, takingfor granted it is complete in all its parts and conditions and isfree of pretension, shirk, conceit and all destructive elements,is to reach the satisfying of the craving of the stomach and ofthe private part, what value is attached to it, since all thesedeeds are shown to the angels of Allah'? So, they have to behidden from the visions [of humans]. These deeds arc amongthe ugly and calamitous ones. One must be ashamed of themand must cover them up. Lord! We seek refuge with You, wethe poor ones, from the mischief of Satan, the evil of Satan andthe evil-insinuating self [nafs]. Do protect us, Lord, from theirtraps by the status with You reserved for Muhammad and theProgeny of Muhammad, Allah blesses him and his Progeny."

This is the end of his statement, may his shadow prolong,about those who are conceited and who brag about their gooddeeds.

INCLUSIVE STATEMENT BY IMAM AL-SADIQ (a.s)

We would like to beautify this dissertation with an inclusivestatement by imam al-Sadiq (a.s) so its seal may he musk :

In Misbah al-Shari'a, Imam al-Sadiq (a.s) is quoted as havingsaid the following :

"I am surprised, utterly surprised, about one who admires hisdeed when not knowing how it will be sealed for him. One whoadmires himself and his deed strays from the path of guidanceand claims what does not belong to him. One who makes a

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false claim is a liar even if his claim is hidden [not articulated],even if he lives long, for the first that a conceited person un-dergoes is being stripped of that which he admired so he wouldknow that he is helplessly poor, so he may testify against hisown self, so the argument against him will be stronger, just asit was done to Eblis. Conceit is a seed loving which is apostasy;its ground is hypocrisy, its water is oppression, its branchesare ignorance, its leaves are misguidance, its fruit is a curseand an everlasting abode in the Fire. So, One who opts to beconceited sows the seeds of disbelief, plants hypocrisy, and ithas to bear fruit."

Surely the servant of Allah has said the truth.

All Praise belongs to Allah in the beginning and in the end;His is the favor manifestly and innately.

These pages have been written by the one who is in need ofthe mercy of Allah: Sayyid Ahmed al-Fahri.

[Translation from the original Arabic of this text and its edit-ing were completed, by the Grace of Allah, on a Tuesday,Jumada II 26, 1429 AH/July 1, 2008 in holy al-Kadhimiyya,Baghdad, Iraq.]

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"Wisdom is the lost property of the Believer,

let him claim it wherever he finds it"

Imam Ali (as)